Quickly losing patience.

[Tagged]

Driveshaft is stuck in power head. (1978 9.9 10824M)

I've had the rascal upside down soaking for 4 days. First with WD-40, then with Seafoam Deep Creep. I've had the motor hung from the rafters by a rope tied to the driveshaft the whole time. I've tapped, I've pulled. I wrapped a rag around the shaft, clamped on with vise-grips, and hit (hard) with a ball peen hammer.

Nothing has worked yet.

Any ideas?

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[Tagged]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Maybe learning some new cuss words? The ones I've been muttering haven't convinced it yet.

 

[Daviet]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Short of pulling the powerhead, you are on the right track. I have had some success using an air hammer to vibrate the drive shaft to break it loose.

 

[Tagged]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Well, I'm willing to try it. Hammer on the end, like I'm driving it in?

How do I keep from marring the end of the driveshaft?

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[Daviet]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

No, I hammered it on the side, as far towards the top of the shaft you can get to, don't get to agressive. All you want to do is vibrate the shaft as much as you can.

 

[Moody Blue]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Just went thru this with my 1988 4hp Johnson. Took a week, alot of PB blaster and regular application of the air hammer.

After 5 days I got the shaft to move up/down about 1/8", then I knew I would win the battle. Two days later it popped out with surprisingly very little corrosion evident.

I had the motor standing on its head (resting on the flywheel, not the cowling) and kept applying the PB blaster everyday. I held a piece of 1/4" steel plate on the end of the driveshaft and then hammer the @#&! out of it with the air hammer. Worked for me and didn't mess up the splines of the driveshaft.

 

[bonzoscott]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

You might try some heat with propane torch near the top, lightly and repeatedly. Often swelling just a little then cooling snaps it free.

 

[kbait]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

I had a 9.5 come in recently w/same problem. He said he spent a week trying to free it. He needed the impeller replaced. I looked it over, and noticed the impeller housing had a notch that the impeller pin broke through when lower unit was removed, and that housing wasn't destroyed. I 'reverse engineered' the reassembly and after a few cuss words when fitting the DS into the pinion gear in the gearcase while keeping everything else lined up (took about an hour of fiddling), I finally got the lower unit on and bolted. Pumped like a charm and ran fine. Keep trying to remove that DS from powerhead, but if you absolutely cannot free it, repost w/'driveshaft stuck in powerhead.. how to re-assemble'. I'll answer, and I'm sure other folks have probably done it and can detail the work. I don't see any reason you couldn't do the same procedure on your 9.9, and it's sure better than scrapping the motor! Good luck.

 

[Tagged]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Dernit, cracked the midsection.

Drive shaft is still hanging in, despite lots of penetrating oil, 5 days of hanging from the rafters, repeated strikes from hammer to the side of the shaft, and even strikes to vice grips. Today I broke down and hit it with a torch. I don't know how hot Im supposed to get it, but I heated it enough to discolor the steel. I'm worried about changing the temper, so I stopped there.

After it cooled, I tried the vice-grips again, with no success. So I hung it back up, and kept hitting the side of the shaft with the plastic mallet to vibrate it back and forth.

Then, and this is the bad part, I hit the midsection to try to drive the motor off the shaft. Now I have a crack in the housing that will take a trip to the welder to fix.

Dernit, dernit, dernit.

More patience, please.

Any ideas? When do I give up?

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[1kruzer1]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Sorry to hear about the crack. At this point if it were mine I think I would be pulling the power head. That'll give you better access to the problem spot, and also make it easier to have the midsection repaired with the engine removed. I've had success freeing corrosion welded parts this way: Get a can of freeze spray like gum remover or circuit cooler, or you can even use canned duster if you spray with the can upside down ( the propane or butane will come out as a liquid and chill whatever it's sprayed on). With the power head/driveshaft removed you'll be able to heat then chill right at the source. Be careful not to overheat, as you don't want to damage the crankshaft seal. Just get the shaft up to a couple hundred degrees at most, and then immediately freeze it with the gum freeze. Repeat this cycle several times heating gently then cooling fast. Hopefully you'll be able to break it apart after several cycles. Remember to heat gently and carefully to get some expansion, then chill it quick, as it's the rapid chilling and contraction that'll break it free. Also, a lot of freeze sprays are highly flammable (propane) so put the torch out before you spray the can. Don't want to hear about a flash fireball. Good luck.

 

[Tagged]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Yep. I think it's time to pull the power head. Once I do that, I can check the water jacket anyway.

I'll be following Leeroy's page for directions, unless anyone has better advice.

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[Tagged]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Well, I pulled the power head, which was a good thing, since I've now cleaned out the water jacket. That thing was never going to pump water through those passages.

But the drive shaft is still stuck. I've heated it once, soaked it lots, and hit it hard enough to worry about the crankshaft bearings.

Still practicing patience.

I'll try heat again. I'm worried about the quick cooling making the steel brittle. Anyone else have experience with this?

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[Tagged]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Water jacket was bad, but the cylinder bores looked real good. Lots of life in this little motor if I can get it apart.

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Ok, now that you have the power head off......
Lay the power head on a bench..
Get some big washers that fit over the drive shaft and slide them up to the power head.
Now get a couple of 6 inch pieces of heavy pipe (black or galvanized) and slide them up to the powerhead.
Put the free drive shaft end in a big vise up to the end of the pipe so that the pipe(s) are pretty tight to the washers on the powerhead. You want a little gap between the two pipes, where you put in the........

Tie rod separator (pickle fork).
If everything is set up well (particularly the vise) the tie rod separator , when whacked with a 3 pound sledge, will knock it loose.
Brace under everything so that you don't bend the shaft.

 

[MWG2600]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

I tied my 1977 johnson 70 hp between a tree and the hitch on my truck, with a come along in between. It poped loose quite easy but on that engine the shaft is held in the lower unit.

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

I've read all of the above posts. If that driveshaft isn't bent and unusable by now, I would be greatly amazed. Personally when faced with a problem such as that and charging the customer a hourly rate, I go the following route to keep the bill as low as possible.

Have a friend helping you to avoid additional problems. Remove the powerhead along with the attached driveshaft. Secure a non bearing surface of the driveshaft in a vice.... somewhere between the upper splines and the water pump area.

Have your friend holding onto the powerhead with a grip resembling one hanging over the edge of a volcano holding onto a life saving rope. You do not want that non bouncing powerhead dropping to the floor.

Now, with a length of 2x4 braced against the bottom of the powerhead close to the driveshaft, tap the free end of that 2x4 with a good size hammer.... you may need to change that "tap" wording to "belt"! If this method doesn't free the driveshaft, it's there to stay.

 

[Tagged]

Re: Quickly losing patience.

Success!

And the winner is...

The come-along method. Two well spaced trees, one rope tied to the drive shaft, i also removed the flywheel and tied another rope to the crankshaft. Used the come-along to pull hard enough that I was worried about breaking the crankshaft. Then I tapped (banged, hit, and whacked) the driveshaft with a plastic mallet until POP!

For the record, the o-ring at the top of the driveshaft was intact. I wonder how much it prevented the penetrating oil from reaching the splines?

Thanks everyone for the help and the sanity!