TLDR: It's been a long road and learned a tonne! Thankfully I now have a working outdrive and boat again thanks to all of you!
I bought a new upper and lower unit along with all what was needed in my previous post.
First up we removed the old complete outdrive. The splines going into the engine coupler were intact! My greatest concern was the coupler was gone. Thank fully not the case!
We then proceeded to take apart the broken upper/lower unit and to my shock the lower unit with the drive shaft had half the splines missing. The top snapped in half where the splines meet (See picture). The other bit was lodged in the upper unit and looks difficult to remove. I haven’t taken apart the top unit to see the upper gear damage yet. Might post a follow up on this later.
Then proceeded to follow the tutorial
. The new upper and lower unit ship in two boxes and needed to be assembled. Easy enough, it included the o-ring in the lower unit for the gear lube and impeller ready to go. Unfortunately, it was missing the guide tube for the impeller housing! Recommend a "Black and Decker Workmate" or something similar to hold the lower unit while you get everything ready. Swapped anodes from old leg to new one. Also needed thrust washer from old leg. New prop didn’t come with one :-/
Next up, engine alignment! Got the tool, tried to test it and originally thought the tool was the wrong size as it didn’t fit into the coupler
at all.. After having a discussion with a boat mechanic, he said it was virtually impossible for the engine to go that much out of
alignment and "should be fine".. So proceeded to install the leg using gasket adhesive for the bellhousing O-ring and water intake ring.
With a little fiddling we got it to a point where it would go in 90% of the way but exactly 1 inch out. Googling around everything pointed
to the "
Mercruiser Kick (TM)" however even with hard kicks it still wouldn’t go in.. Using a block of wood and mallet.. It went in eventually. Pumped the gear lube in and flushing muffs quickly on.. The outdrive worked. Didn’t have time to test it out on the water. It was an emotional journey but alas it worked!
Couldn’t sleep that night thinking about why it was so difficult to install and all the youtube videos show it popping into place with ease..
Even though the boat is 16+ years old it still shouldn’t have been that difficult. Decided to do some more googling and came across this excellent
. (8:52 in, This guys video was great!)
It was EXACTLY the same symptoms we had observed.
Two weeks later decided to give it another go. Drained some of the lube, took the leg off and proceeded with alignment. It was way off. I could only access the two mounts at the bottom of the engine. I couldn’t see or get access to the transom mounts. After 5 hours got to a stage where the alignment tool went in with a little push and witnessed all the splines. I couldn’t get it so that I could remove it using 3 fingers (is there some magic voodoo that needs to be done here?). It did take a tug to remove the tool but hey at least it went in this time!
When putting the drive back in.. it went in with just 1 easy kick :-) Pumped more gear lube and tested again.. It worked!
Took it out on the water for the first time without any noticeable difference from before we hit the leg.
It takes abit to get to plane but when it does its flying. I felt like Andy Dufresne at the end of Shawshank Redemption when he climbed out of the tunnel!
Couple of tips/lessons learned:- Get a second gasket/o-ring kit. Its only a 10er, worth it incase you pinch/damage the first and you can use it again if/when you need it.
- Use gasket adhesive for the bellhousing o-ring. It drove me nuts when it kept popping out when trying to get the outdrive in!
- Get some spare e-clips for the hydraulic trim rams.. I broke one and they are pretty cheap.
- Use disposable gloves and lots of paper towels!
- Had some difficulty removing the bolt on the broken leg as it was a size 11MM Allen key. I couldn’t get one from stores in time so bought a 12MM and ground it to an 11MM!
- Find something to put under the leg when working as not to scrape / damage the skeg. I used soft chipboard also acts as a protector from spilling gear-lube!
- GREAT/Invaluable tip on how to align engine using a smaller pipe
- Ask questions on this forum. This is the second successful (major) fix I have done with my boat and all thanks to everyone on here!
- Make sure it’s the right gear ratio for your outdrive if replacing!
- In the alignment tool we trust :-)
- Finally, if this does happen to you. It might make you feel a little better to read that my local marine parts shop has the lower leg unit as a best seller!
I have a working outdrive/boat again!
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