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1985 Mercury 50 Driveshaft lower unit question

R

rwbrown3

New member
I have a 1985 Mercury 50 2 stroke 4 cyl. Today I removed the lower unit to change the impeller. When I pulled off the lower unit I noticed two plastic "sleeves" on the upper splines. The sleeves are splined and fit on the splined portion of the shaft. I have not seen these on any of the youtube videos on removing the lower unit. Does anybody have a clue what they could be? I would like to reassemble the lower unit as soon as possible but not sure how to proceed. Any advice is appreicated.
 
They used something like that to seal the splines from corrosion. Just grease the splines thoroughly with a decent marine grease and you'll be okay.

Jeff
 
fastjeff said:
They used something like that to seal the splines from corrosion. Just grease the splines thoroughly with a decent marine grease and you'll be okay.

Jeff
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My plan for reassembly was to lube the splines and reinstall. Can I just leave these things off and lube the splines or lube the splines and put them back on? Thanks for the tip!
 
kimcrwbr1 said:
Got pics?
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I do have pics but when I click on the insert image button I get an error, the pics are possibly too big. I can drag and drop them in this space but the pics are huge. (I figured out how to add pics, the info section of this forum was very helpful).
 
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Here are pics of the sleeves. I have them stacked the way I found them on the on the driveshaft splines. They look to be in good shape, and the splines of the lower unit weren't damaged or worn or rusted at all. However when I tried removing the lower the unit I had quite a bit of difficulty getting it to come off. Yesterday I put the hose on the bottom and let the unit idle for about 10 minutes and after the engine had warmed up the LU dropped right off. I live in Alaska and the temps have been in the 20's so I have attributed the difficulty to the cold. Yesterday the outside temp was in the mid to upper 40's the engine started immediately and after doing the spark plugs I thought I'd the LU one more try and it came off with little effort. plasticsleeves.jpgsleevessidebyside.jpg
 
Final update. I greased the top splines of the driveshaft and reinstalled the two plastic sleeves and in five minutes the LU was reinstalled. My wife helped guide the water tube back into the water pump and positioned the shift rod to slide back into it's hole. I did the whole thing in neutral. After tightening everything, I hooked the water hose back up and the engine started on the first crank. Checked to see if the propeller spun the way it should when put in gear and all is good. Hopefully I can be back in the water in a few days, after doing some housekeeping chores on the boat. Thanks for letting me know what the plastic pieces were for.
 
fastjeff said:
Does she have a sister!

As if MY wife would....

Jeff
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LOL! Oh man I hit the jackpot with my wife, she hunts and so far I'm playing catchup as she got her first elk a few years ago with a muzzleloader. She loves to fish for halibut and salmon! She's pretty adventurous. I love to tinker on things and a few years ago I put a 5.3 liter V8 out of a chevy suburban into a 1980 Jeep cj5. We drove that old jeep from Az to Ak and back about 6 times our first three years teaching up here. If you google Randalls cj5 build it's out there. She's also a veteran, she attended the USAFA (brainiac). We are school teachers in the middle of nowhere alaska, a little fly-in village called Nanwalek. If she had a sister I'd send her your way!
 
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