<br /><br />Kagee, all the ball gears both press on and are held in place by a nut.<br /><br />KS, if you change the ball gears you want to be sure to put a sealant over the nuts behind the staked in cover.
THEY ALL PRESS ON KSD! You cannot use the later, heavier splined shaft without changing the coupler too. and the shaft has to be the same length as what you have. <br /><br />I'D BE VERY SUSPICIOUS OF THE SHAPE OF YOUR ORIGINAL SMALL SPLINED COUPLER. IF THE SHAFT LOOKED MARGINAL, THE COUPLER PROBABLY LOOKS WORSE. <br /><br />IF YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE SHAFT NOW, I DOUBT THAT YOU CAN EVEN BUY A NEW SMALL SPLINED SHAFT AND YOU DEFINITELY DO NOT WANT TO INSTALL A USED SMALL SPLINED SHAFT SO THAT MEANS YOU'LL STILL HAVE TO PULL THE ENGINE AND CHANGE THE COUPLER.<br /><br />I MAY HAVE A PROPER LATE LARGE SPLINED SHAFT. YOU'D STILL HAVE TO COME UP WITH A COUPLER. If interested you can email me at "lockan@yahoo.com" . Also give me the length measurement of your current shaft.<br /><br />ps, I'm questioning the guy's experience that you have working on it. I had to change my shaft and coupler to the later one. I had my motor out for a different reason and I was appalled at the condition of them, especially the coupler. Mine was a '75 with a 302 behind it not a 350.<br /><br />pss, I think the shaft he has is for a ford, that may be what I have too but shoot me the length of yours anyway and I'll check for sure. Also I may have another source for you to get both the proper late ones-used.
Hey Boomer I changed both ball gears... neither was "pressed" on. <br /><br />KS... Boomer is right... if the shaft has appreciable wear, so does the coupler. One more point... ball gears should be replaced as a pair. If you replace the intermediate and not the one on the drive, you will end up replacing both a short time later.
Does seem to be some confusion here Kagee. I checked the Seloc manual for units between '64 and '77. For the oudrive ball gear, with out specifying, the manual states "in addition to being held on by a nut, some units are pressed on".<br /><br />For the intermediate housing, again without specifying, the manual states that " some ball gears are pressed on without a nut"..<br /><br />No mention, in either case, why some are one way and some are the other????
My local OMC guru uses 3M 5200! Yikes! I told him he must be so confident in his work that he never expects to have to take it apart again. This guy is an old timer. He gets whole units shipped to him from all over the country including Alaska. He also gets repair facilities that ship him units to fix once they have screwed up. He knows all the tricks and secrets. He actually likes the OMC and said with a little improvement they would still have been a big player today. I shudder at the prospect of him retiring.
