Old Hinge Pins

[system-f]

1971 mercruiser 165, fresh water only



How do the hinge pins come out of this drive? The manual says to remove the hinge pin lock screws or pins and remove hinge pins with a special puller tool?

So which is it? Does it have hinge pins or lock screws? Then how do the pins come out?

The cap on my hinge pins looks like it takes a very small torx, this is NOT the 1/2" style 12point on the newer pins.


Pictures later if needed.

 

[Fishermark]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

Your pins are held in place with an aluminum "nail" that is bent over. You straighten the nail and pull it out (like a cotter pin) - then you use a puller to remove the pin. Here's a picture:

You can also just punch them out. (After removing the nail of course )

 

[Fishermark]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

This pic shows where the nail goes:

This shows the nail head. Note on the pin there is a small mark that shows the proper "up" orientation in order to put it back in. You can screw a small bolt into the end of the pin and use vise grips to pull them out if you don't have a puller.

 

[Steven D]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

Getting the nails out of an old drive can be fun, thought I might have to kill a second chicken

Slide hammer can be "borrowed" (they charge you $85 and credit your card when you return it) from Auto Zone. I used the 2 prong attachment and a 1 1/4" 1/4-28 bolt to screw it to the pin and it yanked it right out.

Steven

 

[system-f]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

Thanks for the pictures. This sounds like an adventure.

I keep reading about having to tap the hole where the shift cable comes in on the older drives? The manual of course is vague at best about drive cable installation. No use in doing gimbal, bellows, and not drive cable.

Thanks again.

 

[Fishermark]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

Yes, yo will more than likely need to tap if you still have the old style cable on. Be sure to use the right tap. You want NPS (National Pipe Straight) NOT NPT (National Pipe Tapered). It can be hard to find the right tap at a typical hardware store. Do a search of the forum and you will find the exact size as I have posted it before somewhere.

 

[Steven D]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

My local marine parts supplier tapped mine while I waited for free, another perk of supporting your local business...

Steven

 

[Fishermark]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

Glad to hear it!

 

[dbocha01]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

hey guys...Im a newbie with a hinge pin problem.

I have a 66/67 Mercruiser I 150 on a 66' Thunderbird Cathedral Hull.

Same type hinge pins as above. Does the head of the aluminum nail sit flush with the bell housing? It looks like the previous owner was trying to punch the nails through, but there are only holes below what seems to be the flush head of the nail.

If there is no head of the nail to try and pull or chisel out, I am screwed because i tried pushing from the back and I'm getting nowhere.

If I can't get the nail out, has anyone ever drilled down the bolt hole of the pin to break the nail, and then just muscled the pin through? I have to replace all the bellows anyway so Im not worried about inside damage.

Also the previous owner was losing gear oil from the upper casing, so he hooked up a hose to the oil fill hole, and had a bottle of 90 weight on the boat hooked up to constantly refill....anyone ever see anything like that before?

 

[Fishermark]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

Welcome aboard! You might get a better response if you start a new thread instead of posting at the end of an old one. The nail head sits pretty flush with the front of the gimbal ring. The nail is bent over in the back - and the bent over portion folds over into a groove, so it can be easy to miss.

If you need to, it would be possible to drill out the nail I suppose. As long as no one has put something odd in, the original nail is simply soft aluminum. And yes, you can also just punch the whole pin in towards the center instead of pulling them out.

On the bottle - I know they sell kits where you can put a hose in place of the upper vent screw. I've never seen someone put a hose and a bottle of 90 wt on there... but anything is possible!

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

Another point regarding drilling is that they no longer have the nails available for the original hinge pins. The new nails are larger in diameter, so you will have to redrill the nail hole anyway to bore it out slightly.

 

[dbocha01]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

Welcome aboard! You might get a better response if you start a new thread instead of posting at the end of an old one. The nail head sits pretty flush with the front of the gimbal ring. The nail is bent over in the back - and the bent over portion folds over into a groove, so it can be easy to miss.

If you need to, it would be possible to drill out the nail I suppose. As long as no one has put something odd in, the original nail is simply soft aluminum. And yes, you can also just punch the whole pin in towards the center instead of pulling them out.

On the bottle - I know they sell kits where you can put a hose in place of the upper vent screw. I've never seen someone put a hose and a bottle of 90 wt on there... but anything is possible!

Yea I found the slot in the back where the nails are bent over, flipped it back up and was trying to push it out, but no luck....I guess I will try and pull from the front, if not, ill get the drill out....anyone know the diameter of the nail off hand?

Im sure I'll have plenty more questions, but one I have now, is there a gasket between the upper and lower units of the sterndrive?

And another question, I replaced the impeller on the water pump, is there a wide rubber o-ring/gasket inside the pump housing at the very top? I know there is one on the outside on top of the pump, but when i opened mine up, whoever was in there before me had the pump housing, wide gasket, small oring, then another wide gasket, all outside the pump housing, then another o ring at the top of the shaft. Is that the right order?

 

[Fishermark]

Re: Old Hinge Pins

Too many questions on an unrelated post - go ahead and start a new thread for each question. It will help you in the long run.