Re: Pulling the OD
Pulling off the drive, as long as the splines have been greased in the past, should not be a problem...
But if you build a stand like mine in the pic, it makes it a lot easier, because when you put the drive back on, you have to keep the ujoints aligned straight to get the driveshaft into the coupler...
OK so you start with it with the gearshift in NEUTRAL, not fwd like an Merc Alpha..
figure a way to support the drive when removing...
remove the nuts holding on the trim rams, and the six nuts holding the drive to the pivot housing, and it should come off...be careful...heavy...could hurt your back....
Then check inside the bellows for water, and gear oil...water means a new bellows is needed, gear oil means the input shaft seal is leaking...check the gimble bearing to make sure it turns smoothly....grease it till you see grease coming out while turning it by hand...
Check the ujoints for play...grease em too, and coat the driveshaft splines with OMC triple guard grease...
You need a pivot housing gasket, has to be coated on both sides with OMC gasket sealer, and replace the gasket by the water tube, and the 2 o-rings on the driveshaft, and oil them with motor oil, the gaskets and o rings come in the transom gasket set.
You use the alignment bar to check alignment, you slide it in the gimble and into the coupler with grease on the end of it that goes into the coupler and the pattern of spline marks should be even all the way around. Also this aligns the gimble bearing, which can move slightly so you can get the driveshaft straight through into the coupler.
You have to slide it on, while trying to hold the driveshaft straight, and you may have to lift, coax, etc it to get the splines to line up. Once it slides on within 1/16th of an inch or so of the pivot housing you can replace the 6 nuts and tighten them evenly, I like to put OMC gasket sealer on the threads of the studs as well. Then after tightening them, you replace the nuts that hold on the trim rams. I usually remove the bar that the trim ram nuts go on when I remove them, then grease up that whole bar with triple guard grease when re-installing the drive, makes it easier to remove it the next time.
