Enigine pulled before the outdrive

[Jay D's Ray]

Hello,
I am new to the site and love all the information this forum has to offer. I have a 19' 1988 Searay Seville BR with a mercruiser 4.3 and Alpha one outdrive. I was out at the lake and the starboard side enigine mount gave out and the motor fell. Before I ever read this forum I had my cousin who works on cars tell me he could pull the motor out and I could further investigate the damage. He pulled the motor before the outdrive but the outdrive is still attached to the boat. Can i still pull the outdrive? Is this going to cause me problem and how should i go about handling this problem? I see on here that the first step to pulling a motor is to pull the outdrive first.
Thanks,
Jay-D

 

[mkast]

Re: Enigine pulled before the outdrive

You might want to look in the adults only thread for the correct Mercruiser maintenance manual for your engine.

 

[picklenjim]

Re: Enigine pulled before the outdrive

Sure you can. You would have to have it off anyway beings the motor must be installed first. Just be sure when you get the motor mount fixed that the motor is aligned correctly.

 

[Jay D's Ray]

Re: Enigine pulled before the outdrive

Thanks! I found the correct manual and printed it all out. Thanks for the reply's and information.

 

[frank246]

Re: Enigine pulled before the outdrive

No problem, hope that the shaft or the gimball bearing is not damaged due to the engine dropdown.
The engine can be unbolted, moved forward so the shaft slides out the coupler and then lifted out leaving the drive still attached. To remove the outdrive; unbolt the trim cylinders on the outdrive side, remove the 6 nuts on the outdrive upperhouse, shift the outdrive in fw gear!! and you can pull the drive.
When rebuilding you will need an aligning tool to allign the engine so the outdrive shaft slides nicely into the coupler on the engine, already mentioned in the above post. Great oppurtunity to check the bellows, gimball bearing and pump impeller. Use new gaskets.

 

[Jay D's Ray]

Re: Enigine pulled before the outdrive

Thanks Frank246! This may be a dumb question but when you say shift it forward, what exactly am i shifting? Something on the outdrive or the thorottle shifter lever itself.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Enigine pulled before the outdrive

Ayuh,... Push the controller lever to Forward,...
That also shifts the drive,+ all the linkages to Forward...
The drive will neither come off, or go on, if everything isn't in Forward...

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: Enigine pulled before the outdrive

Ayuh,... Push the controller lever to Forward,...
That also shifts the drive,+ all the linkages to Forward...
The drive will neither come off, or go on, if everything isn't in Forward...

Well . . . if it isn't in forward, it won't come off without breaking the shift arm. You'd have to yank on the outdrive pretty hard to break that arm though!

I'd replace the gimbal bearing anyway as well as the bellows if I were him. Having the engine fall out of alignment that much while in operation would have likely scarred up the bearing at the least. I'd be inspecting the u-joints on the driveshaft as well.

 

[Jay D's Ray]

Re: Enigine pulled before the outdrive

Thanks everyone! I am rebuilding the whole boat and will go ahead and service the outdrive and engine while its out. I just wasn't to familiar with the engine and outdrive. With the help from you all I can go ahead and get to working on this thing. I guess I was stressing more than I should have been.

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: Enigine pulled before the outdrive

Oh yeah, check the engine coupler splines/rubber while you have it out. Those will fail quickly if they've been run out of alignment.