woodycooper
Seaman
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2022
- Messages
- 54
I've replaced my trim motor and to get to it on my motor the trim rod must be removed at a minimum. I've read about this and it seems most of them get stuck after years of use. The consensus seems to be heat/beat with brass punch, penetrating oil, repeat, for days if necessary. I thought I'd share what I used to finally get this rod moving.
What I ended up using was a poor man's press using a large C-clamp. I used a 1" galvanized collar on the clamp end (port side) and a 1/2" nipple on the screw end, then tightened this arrangement carefully so that I applied as much force to the starboard side of the rod via the nipple. The outer diameter of the nipple is almost exactly the same as the rod and the collar on the opposite side allowed for the pin to be pushed out through the middle of the collar. Once I had it as tight as I could get without breaking this fragile arrangement, I took a large mallet and hammered the end of the screw. Usually I got one good hit which broke the whole thing, but these single hits seemed to move the rod very slightly. Then heat, then manually hammering it with a similar 1/2" pipe with a collar to make it easier to strike with the mallet. Then oil, heat, set up the C-clamp again, tighten, hit the crap out of it, and start over.
I started the process by using a brass punch which was flattened and bent from the beating. The pipe works great as a punch, and I did not mushroom the ends or anything. Once removed I sanded out everything cleaned and greased the pin and now it slides in and out easily.
First picture is the brass punch after a day of hammering. Second is the makeshift punch I made. Third photo shows the setup of the makeshift press, and also you can see the convenient place to hit once tightened down.
Anyhow, everything I've read said it would take days and plenty of patience, and they were correct. Hope this helps someone down the line because if you have an old carbureted Evinrude / Johnson and you need to work on the trim motor, chances are one or both rods (don't know the technical name for the lower one) will be stuck HARD. I managed to sneak the trim motor out and the new one in without removing the entire trim/tilt assembly, so it can be done even though the book says to remove both pins and the entire assembly.
What I ended up using was a poor man's press using a large C-clamp. I used a 1" galvanized collar on the clamp end (port side) and a 1/2" nipple on the screw end, then tightened this arrangement carefully so that I applied as much force to the starboard side of the rod via the nipple. The outer diameter of the nipple is almost exactly the same as the rod and the collar on the opposite side allowed for the pin to be pushed out through the middle of the collar. Once I had it as tight as I could get without breaking this fragile arrangement, I took a large mallet and hammered the end of the screw. Usually I got one good hit which broke the whole thing, but these single hits seemed to move the rod very slightly. Then heat, then manually hammering it with a similar 1/2" pipe with a collar to make it easier to strike with the mallet. Then oil, heat, set up the C-clamp again, tighten, hit the crap out of it, and start over.
I started the process by using a brass punch which was flattened and bent from the beating. The pipe works great as a punch, and I did not mushroom the ends or anything. Once removed I sanded out everything cleaned and greased the pin and now it slides in and out easily.
First picture is the brass punch after a day of hammering. Second is the makeshift punch I made. Third photo shows the setup of the makeshift press, and also you can see the convenient place to hit once tightened down.
Anyhow, everything I've read said it would take days and plenty of patience, and they were correct. Hope this helps someone down the line because if you have an old carbureted Evinrude / Johnson and you need to work on the trim motor, chances are one or both rods (don't know the technical name for the lower one) will be stuck HARD. I managed to sneak the trim motor out and the new one in without removing the entire trim/tilt assembly, so it can be done even though the book says to remove both pins and the entire assembly.
