Lower unit won't come off!

[wingtime]

Fitz, your right the pilot on the standard gear case is spring loaded.  A very strong spring I might add. I ran a bore brush up in the crankshaft to clean it up and I peeped inside to see if there is a corresponding pilot hole.  There is not.  It's just a conical shape at the top.  Here's a pic I shot of inside the crank:



I guess the question is how far can that preloaded pilot spring push back into the shaft?

I was looking into the seal and your right the whole cap assembly is about $160 bucks.  I'll go to my local dealer and find out more.


Oh and that CLE gear case is very heavy duty...  It outweighs the standard one by probably better than ten pounds!  I'm supposed to give it back to gentleman I bought to motor from however I might by it from him since he only wanted about $300 for the extra one he had.  I'm sure I can get more than double that for it.

[RickK]

Since your pics are already 640x480, you can copy and insert the IMG code instead of the IMG Thumb code.  Would save us clicking on the thumbnail to see a 640x480 pic that we could have seen here. My $.02

[fitz73222]

The spring loaded verses  no spring loaded design is about the bearing design in the gearcase and not the crankshaft. Since the driveshaft spline doesnt bottom out in the crank the preload is calculated with that in mind. The crankshafts were the same regardless of the gearcase used. You should not have any problems with the stock gearcase bolt up. As for the CLE case; that was/is a $5000.00 case new! You should be able to sell it for $1500-$1800 to the right audience. That gearcase was offered with several different ratios, so you will need to find out which one you have in order to sell it.

[fitz73222]

I just checked the price on a new Mercury sportmaster CLE gearcase assembly; $5399.00 plus shipping. If you can get it for $300. buy it!

[wingtime]

I just checked the price on a new Mercury sportmaster CLE gear case assembly; $5399.00 plus shipping.

   Holy cow!   I didn't know they were worth that much!  I could have bought two motors w/ three CLE lowers (one CR) for $4000.  I could have parted them out and had my motor for free!  I guess I'll tell him I want to buy it when he gets back in town!

Are the bearings in the power head able to take that much of a side load from the pre-load spring?  I guess they must be OK.


Rick I tried inserting the pics directly but it said they were too large.  Also I figured that the thumbs wouldn't take up as much space so those who were not that interested didn't have to scroll as much.  I personally hate a large pic that makes the whole forum wider than the screen.  Not sure what is the proper forums etiquette is here but I'm open to what everyone prefers.

[seabob4]

As long as there are not too many, I like BIG ones...

[wingtime]

Well it's all back together and running!  Now I just have to hook up the controls, wire harness, steering, etc etc.  Here's a video of the test run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDI-rzQ58QY

I don't want to hear about revving it while on the hose..  I know but I had a bunch of grease on the impeller and well I couldn't resist it!