Very difficult outdrive removal

[mike456]

I'm a newbee with a 1992 5.7L Mercruiser with Apha One Gen II (I assume). Engine S/N OD079044, Drive S/N OD647552, Tran S/N OD659499. Bought her mid last summer from exclusive use on NH fresh water lake and she ran great till end of season. It had no maintenance records. I pulled the outdrive (which was a first for me but I've read extensively here, in Merc manual and on the web) and it was VERY difficult to get it off. Took about an hour of tugging, shimeying,and prying. I had it in forward as instructed. The drive and gimble housing were more than a inch seperated before it came completly loose. The gimble looks fine; no rust, turns smoothly and seems tight. U-joints are also tight and seem fine. No evidence of water in bellows. I assume I have an alignment problem but should it be this hard? It may have been many years since it was removed and greased. I saw another post where someone suggested that if the bushings on rear engine mounts are bad that could cause this removal issue. Here is a picture of one and the other is similar. Does this look normal?

<br />I will get an alignment tool but is there a site that gives instuctions on how to align the engine? Thanks for replys. This forum is Great!

 

[mike456]

Re: Very difficult outdrive removal

<br />I'm not sure why the picture does not show in the post below. Here is another try.

 

[mike456]

Re: Very difficult outdrive removal

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g121/mikenoonan456/motor_mount.jpg <br />One more try. Here is the link to picture. The image button does not seem to work for me.

 

[mike456]

Re: Very difficult outdrive removal

also want to clairify that my comment "she ran great till end of season" was NOT suggesting that something went wrong at end of season. I winterized and stored her as normal.

 

[Don S]

Re: Very difficult outdrive removal

That picture of your rear mount looks as it should.<br />

<br /><br />Your alignment may also be ok, but if that drive hasn't been off in years and there was no grease on the shaft, just a black dry "Stuff", it may be out of alignment or just needing grease.<br />Clean it out real good and use an alignement bar to push grease into the coupler. It may take some doing at first as the bar could feel way out of alignment because of the black dust.<br />Stick the bar in with grease and twist and pushs it in, may take several tries to get it all the way in. If you can't pushs it in easily, then you will need to adjust the front mounts up or down to get it right. If it still won't come in, then it may be the back mounts are coming loose internally and allowing the back of the engine to droop.<br />Also, when you clean up the coupler and shaft splines inspect them closely. IF they are coming up to a point on the splines instead of a flat on top, then the coupler and shaft are almost worn out and will need replaced soon. This can be from lack of lubrication, or out of alignment. The out of alignment will cause the grease to be pushed out very quickly and make it look like it was never greased.

 

[mike456]

Re: Very difficult outdrive removal

Thanks Don. You are an amazing resource who helps guys like me keep boating fun!!