changing the bellows and shift cable on 87 merc 3.0, hit a snag!!!!!

[natsgrampy]

First time taking on a job this big. Changing the u - joint bellows, shift cable bellows and shift cable, and all the seals / gaskets. Have all the parts and the special tools neede to do this successfully. Followed all the instructions I could find, removed outdrive, disconnected shift cable from inside boat. Got everything off, including the bell housing. As I was removing the shift cable retainer nut, snap. the nut broke off with the cable still in the bell housing and I can't get it to move. I tried to heat it up and that didn't work. Now I am stuck.

I am so frustrated as eveything was going so well. What can I do now? Should I take the bell housing to a professional, to get the remaining part of the nut and cable off? Or, did I destroy the bell housing and need a new one?

Thanks for all the help! Great forum.

 

[achris]

Re: changing the bellows and shift cable on 87 merc 3.0, hit a snag!!!!!

The cable snapping off is no big deal, unless it's snapped the nut off at the same point, which sounds like what you have... Usually heating helps, but be careful, aluminium has a nasty habit of ending up as a puddle on the floor quiet quickly... :facepalm: One option you have is to open it up as much as you can with a drill, then run the special tap all the way down (the special STRAIGHT tap) from the aft side of the bell housing. I assume you're working on an older cable that screws in from the front side of the bell housing... (all references are relative to the vessel.. Not where you are standing )

Chris......

 

[natsgrampy]

Re: changing the bellows and shift cable on 87 merc 3.0, hit a snag!!!!!

The cable is actually still in the bell housing. The nut has snapped off and left a threaded section of the cable still in the bell housing. It isn't the older style, the nut is towards the back. Should I break off the remaining cable and deal with just the nut?

 

[achris]

Re: changing the bellows and shift cable on 87 merc 3.0, hit a snag!!!!!

Yep, gotcha... I'd just chop the cable at the front of the bell housing and work on what's left there... Sounds like this is not going to be easy.... Good luck...

Chris......

 

[fishrdan]

Re: changing the bellows and shift cable on 87 merc 3.0, hit a snag!!!!!

Heat & PB Blaster a couple times, let it marinade in PB overnight, then pray a left handed drill bit will spin out the remainders of the cable. If not, you'll either need to take it to a machine shop and let them do their magic, or keep stepping up in drill sizes until you expose the threads, pick them out and chase the threads with a tap. It might be worth a call to your local friendly machine shop to see how much they would charge to remove the broken fitting...

Either way, you need a 1/4-18 NPSF tap to clean up the threads (or the machine shop will)