Hello folks. I’ve always received good advice on this forum with my boat repair questions. I’ve got my late granddad’s old boat and have been trying to gradually do all of the recommended maintenance on it. From what I can tell, the water pump was never replaced. So I bought a manual and today I attempted to remove the lower unit…to no avail. I got all of the bolts out…but one. I sprayed super penetrant on everything, but one of the bolts broke off. It looks like the lower unit should still drop but, other than it separating about 1/32", the thing wouldn’t drop. Now I wish I just hadn’t touched it. So four things now 1) any suggestions on how to remove that broken bolt, it’s one of the 4 9/16" bolts. My thought right now is if I can get the lower unit off, I can drill a pilot hole in the middle of the broken off bolt, then use a bolt extractor to try again 2) any suggestions on what I’m doing wrong to remove the lower unit. The manual really sucks. 3) can I still run the thing with one of the bolts broken off? 4) Chris V, can you PM with me an estimate of what it would cost to do this work?
folly
without seeing the problem, gonna be real difficult to give you a price on something like this.
Any thoughts as to whether or not I can run the thing without that one bolt tightened up?
on the record, NO, you can not
off the record, you can probably get by with it, but I wouldnt suggest
Not familiar with that year, but most outboards have a bolt hidden beneath the trim tab. Did you remove that one also?
Yep, removed the bolt underneat the trim tab. From reading other forums it looks like I need to disconnect the shift linkage underneath the carb. That should be fun.
Well I worked on the stinking thing for 4 hours tonight and I’ve got nothing. The lower unit won’t budge. I know I have all of the bolts remove, shift linkage removed, etc. Is the thing supposed to be in reverse or neutral or something? It feels like there must be another bolt on it, but I know there isn’t. Any suggestions?
the linkage wont hold it tight
even with the linkage connected, it will still drop at least 1/2 inch.
most likely the bolt you broke, is holding the thing together
chris, I don’t think that’s it. I checked it and it’s loose at that bolt. I think the drive shaft is frozen up. Oh well, the motor is 24 years old. I think we got our money’s worth out of it. I bolted it back up. Looks like I’m running it till it dies from here on. Great lesson in preventative maintenance though, change that water pump regularly and grease the splines on the drive shaft. It’s a lot cheaper to do that than to pay for a new motor later.
I just did this same motor last week. It’s that bolt you broke, it isn’t that had to get out, you don’t want to be on the water and over heat!, also make sure the zinc bolt is out, not sure if that goes through or not, i changed the zinc
I know it’s not the bolt I broke. The bolt broke at the threads so there’s nothing that could be holding it on. I talked to a couple of folks and determined that the splines in the drive shaft are locked up.
the seal on top must has let water in, that sucks, still may tap out after soaking, to do that i would remove motor and turn upside down, I know that sounds crazy, but splines are high up good luck. By the way, I went over ten years on a water pump with this motor.
There is a company in RI, that remanufacters evinrude johnson, three cylinders and sells them.