water jacket gasket removal on a 402 (40hp)

[kenters]

whats the trick?
i can get at all the bolts but the bottom one doesn't have a captured nut on the opposite side, so it just spins, and cant fit a wrench or nothing in that tight space.
so i started to try to take the bottom of the hood/cover (?) off to get at the nut from the bottom, but that looks like i have to disassemble most of the upper half to get it off.
there has to be an easier way.
Any suggestions?

 

[Phil303]

Re: water jacket gasket removal on a 402 (40hp)

i have the same issue now with my merc 800, i can't get to the bottom nut without removing the lower cowl, which looks like i have to dismantle most of the engine to get too!

 

[kenters]

Re: water jacket gasket removal on a 402 (40hp)

no easy way, in fact wasted time avoiding doing it the right way. which ended up being the easy way in the end.