I have a mercruiser alpha one gen 2 outdrive and recently (as in 3 summers in a row) went through some problems with the upper ring and pinion gears melting down due to lack of lubrication. The original gears made is 14 years in my 2001 Chaparral 230 and so I decided to purchase a nice used upper on ebay. I installed the upper and it had a yoke oil seal problem which I didn't know about so the drive lube leaked into the bilge. I just kept running it and topping off the lube bottle all summer. I pulled it out of the water and sure enough the gears were beginning to show wear. So, I pressed the gears off and have now reinstalled the gears into the bearing and it is all ready to go back onto the short yoke drive shaft. However, I am now confused as to which drive shaft to install to. One of the short yokes has a smaller "shoulder" area (where the oil seal/carrier and ring sit) than the other. One is 0.435 in long and the other is 0.522 in long. Somewhere around 1997-1998 this changed.
My question is: cans someone tell me the dimensions of the post 1998 yoke seal? I can't seem to find this anywhere on the net.
My question is: cans someone tell me the dimensions of the post 1998 yoke seal? I can't seem to find this anywhere on the net.