I finally got the lower unit on my 1963 Johnson 40HP SuperSeahorse Electramatic rebuilt to my satisfaction and Sunday I put it back on. Great Googly Moogly what a chore! I took me over 3 hours to remount that lower unit. That thing must weigh 30 lbs and you have to line up two water tubes plus the driveshaft plus pull the shift wire through its hole. It was originally a longshaft, I converted it to shortshaft. How one would get this lower back on a longshaft is beyond me.<br /><br />Here's how the manual describes the process: "Slowly lift the lower unit into place with the driveshaft indexing with the crankshaft splines and the water tubes entering the exhaust housing grommets". Boy does that sound easy!<br /><br />I spent the first 40 minutes in repeated futile attempts to lift the unit into place. No way. I wound up using 3 bolts about 2" longer than the correct mounting bolts to hang the lower unit from the exhaust tower. That way it was lined up and steady. Then I spent an hour with a small mirror peering up the tower and pushing the water tubes around until they lined up exactly with the water passage grommets. What a bear. I kept working the lower unit up with the temporary mounting bolts and finetuning the positions of the water tubes until they mated with the grommets. At this point the driveshaft and water tubes should have slid into place, but the driveshaft was stubborn. I had to put a floor jack under the skeg and slowly raise the lower while jiggering the flywheel. Eventually, "plump!" and the lower was on. I threaded in the correct mouning bolts to the holes still open, pulled out the temporary (long) bolts and put correct ones in, then torqued all around.<br /><br />How do you longtime BigTwin owners maintain your impellers every few years AND maintain your sanity? What's the secret trick to getting everything lined up? If this had the longshaft kit still on it I wouldn't have been able to do the mirror trick to see the water tubes. I'd probably still be out there in the shop. By the way, 110 degree heat index Sunday - over 70% humidity. What a job!!!
