'56 Sea King (Gale)

[oldboat1]

I have a 5 hp Sea King (GG9002A) with a lower unit problem. The motor locks up in gear, or partially locks up. I've opened the gearcase a couple of times to inspect and reseal -- adjusted the detent spring to take some tension off the shift rod, although that didn't solve the problem (made shifting smoother, which is an improvement). <br /><br />I think the problem might be the pinion shaft with its shock absorber assembly -- never seen that before, and the parts manual doesn't show the components. My question is this: Are there two springs inside the shock absorber or one? I know mine has two springs -- which may mean I have a broken spring. I thought the mechanism was intended to work that way, with the "top" spring butting up against the bottom one when the mechanism coils. Thinking about it though (and given that I still have the problem), I'm thinking the spring is broken and has to be replaced. <br /><br />Before taking the powerhead off again and disassembling everything, I thought I would first see if anybody has some advice on this little critter.

 

[alcan]

Re: '56 Sea King (Gale)

Hi oldboat<br />Sorry I do not understand the situation here. Let me say first that I have never worked on this exact model seaking. The shock absorber on the pinionshaft has me perplexed. Does your model have forward and reverse? Or does it just have forward and neutral? The spring thing you describe sounds more like a clutch than a shock absorber. This system works with spring tension on drums, for forward the spring is tight around the drums. The spring is wound so the faster the motor goes the tighter the spring gets. For neutral, you flip a lever or push a botton, this pulls a cable which pulls a blocking device that blocks the spring form winding tight. Is this the situation your talking about?

 

[oldboat1]

Re: '56 Sea King (Gale)

just a little more in the way of a description: The pinion shaft and the shock absorber assembly forms a section of the drive shaft -- essentially the lower section between the gearcase and the impeller. The driveshaft from the powerhead slides into the "shock absorber" assembly that contains a surrounding spring (or springs) that presumably cushions engagement of the driveshaft with the gears in the lower unit. At least I think that's the theory.

 

[oldboat1]

Re: '56 Sea King (Gale)

Thanks again, Alcan. I think the spring works a little like a clutch -- or maybe more like a clutch plate. I think the spring must coil in response to rotation of the driveshaft from the engine, while transferring the motion to what is the rest of the driveshaft. This would cushion the sudden engagement of the shaft. The rest of the shift mechanism and gearcase appears to be identical to Evinrudes and Johnsons of the period that have gearshifts.<br /><br />Later OMC's obviously had one-piece driveshafts, but it looks to me from the parts blowups I have that some models had this two piece assembly into the mid-60s. I just had never seen it.<br /><br />I have a '57 Sea King that presumably has the same shaft assembly, but there were no problems with it and I didn't get below the impeller. I kind of hate to take it apart just to look at it, as it is running darned-near perfect.

 

[alcan]

Re: '56 Sea King (Gale)

Hi Oldboat<br />Again I have to apologize, I'm not familar with this model. I would guess that since Gale built motors for several different retailers, they left this clutch system in to save having to make differernt parts for the differernt models. Since your model has a full gear shift this clutch system would be unnecessary. How ever they could use these same parts to build a 5hp forward and neutral model for someone else. I am familar with this type clutch system, both Merc and OMC used this in the 50's. This doesn't solve your problem though. And I don't have an answer for you. The only thing I can think of is that the spring is installed the right end up so that it winds tight instead of unwinding???

 

[oldboat1]

Re: '56 Sea King (Gale)

Alcan -- Appreciate the effort and info. As I was doing one of the replies, I was thinking in terms of the direction of the spring too -- might be upside down. I still have to resolve the question about one spring or two. I think it must be a single spring, and mine is broken.<br /><br />It might also be possible to use a one-piece driveshaft from a '65 or later OMC (An Intertec manual I have seems to say the change took place then, or maybe a change across the board for all models.) And of course there is always the possiblity of finding a parts motor with a good lower unit....

 

[alcan]

Re: '56 Sea King (Gale)

Hi Oldboat<br />I'm going to vote for the single spring. Unfortunatly that means yours is broken. You sound like you are a pretty good scrounger. Most of us that like to play with this older stuff are. I don't think it would be too difficult to scrounge up another spring, if this is the case.