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Stringer Tilt Housing Shaft Seal Replacement

gcban

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"Like many stringers, my 1985

"Like many stringers, my 1985 V8 / 800 stringer tilt would only work going down and not come up unless assisted by hand or a rope. Today I opened the tilt housing and lots of grey goo and water came out. I have already purchased the complete tilt clutch housing rebuild kit but my question is this. There are 2 seals that go back to back in the tilt housing case around the tilt output shaft to keep the water out and the grease/oil in. My Clymer OMC manual says it takes a special OMC tool to insert these 2 seals properly. I know that many of you fellow stringer owners have done this job so any input to help me out would be appreciated. Is there some trick or special tool I can sue to replacing those seals? Thanks for all your help! - Gerry"
 
"The same size socket. And aft

"The same size socket. And after doing the reseal you will still get water in the tilt clutch housing.

However heres a few tips:
1- Put 2 gaskets on under the cap when you go to replace the cap with the 4 screws. Actually in the book they are called shims, cause the o-ring does the sealing on the cap.

2- Do not over tighten the 4 screws. If you do you can bind the shaft and it will not allow the shaft to turn freely.

3-Pack the housing with grease.Yes i know it calls for 30 weight oil, trust me pack it with a quality grease. Grease will not allow water to enter.

What i did was make up a zerk fitting to fit in the add oil hole, and i shoot grease into the housing every 2 or 3 times i go on the water, works good and the beginning of the boating season i pull the cap and inspect the guts, no water gets in.

3-Another tip, when you raise the drive, on the front of the drive, there is a hole with a zerk fitting inside, grease that zerk fitting 4-5 good shots.

4- Under the rubber bumpers are zerk fittings, grease them.

5- Soak the guts in gas for 2 or 3 hours, and blow dry with compressed air."
 
"One tip I heard the other day

"One tip I heard the other day.... put the tilt cover on 90 degrees turned, so the level plug is at the top instead of half way up.
That way you can fill it higher with oil.

I did the grease thing on mine last year...it's lasting so far. I wish I had thought of the turned cover though. I'd like to see how that works. I'd probably try an 85W140 gear oil if I was doing it again."
 
"Thanks gang for the great inp

"Thanks gang for the great input. I will do the double gasket thing and probably fill with grease although the gear oil trick sounds interesting. Hy, its funny you mentioned putting the cover on with the fill plug at the top. I did not pay attention to the covers orientation when I removed it and had already planned on putting it back on that way!

Won't get to it until next week but I will let you know how it goes. Thanks Again- Gerry"
 
"UPDATE: Hy Stat & Chiefal

"UPDATE: Hy Stat & Chiefalen, I finally got around to doing my tilt seals yesterday and I decide to try the 85W140 gear oil and 2 gaskets. After I filled the clutch housing and put it all back together, I hit the tilt switch and it did the same thing it had been doing before I rebuilt it, would go down fine but not come up without help. Today I headed to Lake Washington to enjoy the sunny day on the water. Drive went down fine as usual. After 5 hours on the water I put the boat on the trailer and got the rope to help lift the drive. I figured I would try the switch to see what happens before attaching the rope and low and behold it came up fully on its own with no help! Go figure. Goes up and down fully smooth as silk now. Thanks again gang for all your help. Now I have to figure out the 10 quarts of oil I took out of my crankcase today (new post coming). -Gerry"
 
your battery being fully charg

your battery being fully charged after 5 hours of boating might have helped.
Filing all of the ring terminals shiny on both sides at the tilt relays usually helps along with cleaning the 50A barrel fuses that supply the relays with some steel wool.
 
"Were you able to get the snap

"Were you able to get the snap ring on properly? I had this same problem. My snap ring wasn't on all the way and it popped loose first time out in the water. Thus, allowing the tilt to go down but not back up. Also, when you rebuilt the clutch housing, did you happen to make sure the metal balancing cylinder deep in the clutch housing was level? If not, its possible it's catching on the indentions of the backside of the housing closest to the stern. I still can't seem to get my snap ring back on. I tried the C-clamp trick and everything. May have to take the whole clutch assemply out and have a boat shop compress it back together. What a pain. Any ideas from anyone will be helpful for my snap ring issue."
 
"John, sorry I can't help

"John, sorry I can't help you with that one. I did not rebuild my clutch pack. I soaked it in gas for a couple of hours to clean it, dried it off with compressed air and then soaked the whole pack in 30WT oil for a couple of days before putting everything back together. Only snap ring I had to take off was on the tilt output shaft to hold the tilt gear on, and that went on and off easily. Good Luck to you! - Gerry"
 
"Finally fixed my tilt as bein

"Finally fixed my tilt as being discussed in this string. Wanted to share with everyone a simple 10 min fix to my issue. No press or C-Clamp needed to put the snap ring back on the Tilt clutch. This could also serve as a quick manual overide if anyones tilt gets stuck in or out of the water. On the backside of the tilt clutch closest to the Stern, there is a plastic screw. this is just a cover. Remove the plastic screw and insert an alan (spelling) wrench and loosen or tighten the screw. This controls the compression of the tilt clutch to make it tighter or looser. In order for me to get my snap ring back on, I simply loosened this screw, then easily put the snap ring back on by hand with literally no force at all. Tightened the alan wrench as tight as possible and BAM! All fixed. If your tilt motor is fried, you can do this to lower and raise the stern manually without having to remove the 3 bolt triangle plate. If I knew about this, I would have saved countless hours taking apart my clutch on the boat ramp and having to tie up the stern for transporting."
 
"i too have the screw and it s

"i too have the screw and it serves to tighten down the clutch pack, but you have to leave it a little loose cause if you hit something woth the drive it will allow the drive to move up and not break.

another reason to love the stringer, merc don't have that."
 
I think the tension adjustment

I think the tension adjustment screw is only on 1983-1985 units. It's a nice upgrade for an earlier stringer.
 
"John, glad you got your clutc

"John, glad you got your clutch pack back together. My 1985 800 stringer has the same tension screw in the middle. It has a proper tension/slip adjustment like chiefalen said, I think its around 150ft/lbs of tension and the tilt gear should slip so the stringer drive gets out of the way if something hits it with greater force than that. - Gerry"
 
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