Re: 1971 7.5 Mercury Impeller key
Jerry, place a dollop of thick grease (I use the Sta-Lube blue boat bearing grease myself) on the flat of the driveshaft, and slap the impeller key on the flat. The grease'll hold it in the general position.<br /><br />It's a good idea to draw a line on the driveshaft, to a few inches directly above the key, so you can tell exactly where the key is sitting when you go to install the impeller. Use a magic marker on the shaft, or wrap a bit of masking tape around the shaft and mark on that.<br /><br />Take note of the position of the keyway in the impeller. <br /><br />When you slide the impeller down on the shaft, line up the keyway with your mark and as you begin to push the impeller blades into the pump housing, rotate both the driveshaft and the impeller clockwise, in unison. <br /><br />Doing this will help maintain the relationship between the impeller key and keyway as you insert the impeller.<br /><br />You may have to try it a few times, as you have to catch the key in the keyway just right or it pushes the key off the flat of the shaft, as you've probably already experienced!<br /><br />Makes the old Johnrude impellers quite easy by comparison, eh??<br /><br />Anyway, HTH and G'luck........ed
