115 Merc inline lower unit off. Everything look okay?

[SaltH2OHokie]

Aside from the broken speedo (?) hose, does anything look terribly out of place?  I bought an impeller kit that supposedly has "all seals" needed, but to be honest it looks like it has 5 generations each of like 3 seals rather than 15 seals for this motor.  Regardless, new impeller is going in and whatever seals I see and can match up will get replaced.

Any tips/thoughts?





Thanks!

[seabob4]

Looks just fine Ryan.  Very similar to my 1961 70 horse...

[SaltH2OHokie]

Okay. Impeller replaced (old one looked brand new, so previous owner didn't lie about that either).

Put it back on and I'm always in Forward.  What'd I miss?

[fitz73222]

Okay. Impeller replaced (old one looked brand new, so previous owner didn't lie about that either).

Put it back on and I'm always in Forward.  What'd I miss?

You must make sure that the upper and lower shift shaft splines are phased correctly. In other words, the gearcase is in forward gear and the control box is in forward gear. Verify the gearcase is in forward by rotating the driveshaft clockwise and propeller is turning clockwise by grabbing the propeller. If you turn the prop counterclockwise you should hear a ratcheting sound, this verifies forward gear. Make sure you lightly grease the male shift shaft on the gearcase so it will easily slip into the female coupler in the midsection. Aligning the two shafts can be a little tedious so patience is a virtue. If they don't want to line up as you reassemble you take a pair of small needle nose vice grips and very gently grasp the lower shiftshaft (do not damage the spline) and slightly rotate the shiftshaft counterclockwise until it mates with the upper shiftshaft as you push up on the gearcase and they go together. DO NOT FORCE the two together. When they mate up you should be able to just about completely push the gearcase into the mid by hand without needing the bolts to pull up the assembly. All this while you make sure that the water tube and driveshaft splines are going into the crankshaft. (This may require that rock the flywheel back and forth until the driveshaft enters the crankshaft. Easy as pie!

[SaltH2OHokie]

So the splines are not "symmetrical" around the shafts?  To be clear, prop shaft rotation as viewed from rear, shift shaft as from the top?

Thanks!

[fitz73222]

The splines are symmetrical you just have to make sure both are in the correct relationship to one another so when the gearcase is in forward gear the shifter is in forward gear also. If you're one tooth off it won't shift correctly and bind up. Also, do not shift into reverse without turning the prop shaft at the same time or you can damage the shift cam in the gearcase. Forward is ok to shift without turning the propeller. As far as rotation, from any view; clockwise drive shaft rotation= clockwise propeller rotation in forward gear.

[fitz73222]

Shift shaft rotates clockwise into forward gear from the top view.

[SaltH2OHokie]

Got her without much fight when it was daylight, and 53deg vs last nights work light induced shadows and temperatures in the 20's .


Temperature and daylight did not, on the other hand, make my gear lube any less milky gray in appearance...  What would be my most likely points of intrusion you reckon?

Thanks for all the help!

[seabob4]

Temperature and daylight did not, on the other hand, make my gear lube any less milky gray in appearance...  What would be my most likely points of intrusion you reckon?

Thanks for all the help!

Prop shaft seal...

[fitz73222]

Well you had the opportunity to change the driveshaft seals with the water pump kit you have. That's what those extra seals were for if you had removed the bottom housing below the water pump. On Mercurys it's usually the driveshaft or shiftshaft seals which are very easy to change. Usually the props haft seal if fishing line cut the seal, otherwise very rarely on its own. Change the gearlube and run it and see how quickly it gets water in it.

[SaltH2OHokie]

I replaced the o ring around the drive shaft seal as it came with that, and replaced all the gaskets as I stacked my way back up... but it didn't have the seal itself... and now that you say it, it had an o ring that looked about right for similar placement on the shift sh shaft, but I didn't catch that at the time... but again, no actual oil seal was in my little box of parts for that either .

Oh well, think I've got the hang of pulling it now, so if it has to come back down, no biggie.

Thanks.