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1989 OMC Sterndrive needs to be pulled HELP

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Ambrose Bond

Member
I removed a screw on the port side of my outdrive housing and now I must pull it to replace the screw because what ever was olding it fell. The boat shop said I would have to heat the housing to get it off because the studs probably have corroded and would be hard to remove. Anyone ever experienced this or have any suggestions.
 
Ambrose Bond said:
I removed a screw on the port side of my outdrive housing and now I must pull it to replace the screw because what ever was olding it fell. The boat shop said I would have to heat the housing to get it off because the studs probably have corroded and would be hard to remove. Anyone ever experienced this or have any suggestions.
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It's possible that the nuts have seized up onto the studs. Give it a try without heating them first, or try some penetrating lubricant and some muscle. If you need to resort to heat, don't heat the housing, heat the nuts. Drain your oil to lose a couple of extra pounds and prevent spilling it all over the ground. I don't foresee why you would need to remove the lower from the upper to fix your problem, but it will be easier to work on the upper with it removed, it's up to you. The part you dropped is a small steel bar that I think is an anode to prevent your interior water passage from corrosion. You can fish it out simple enough, but putting it back in with the screw is pretty tough but doable. It may have fallen deeper into the passage, if so remove your water impeller to fish it out that way. You'll see what I mean when you get it apart.

Order a couple of gaskets too. You could use RTV, but the gasket is easier and cleaner. There's two for the connection between the outboard to the transom. One paper type for the housing, and one rubber weird shaped O-ring type for the water passageway. You need both! without the o-ring one your water won't pump right.

The books say to not reuse the nuts either for bolting the outboard on, but most people reuse them without problems. If you had to heat it though, or had problems removing them, go ahead and get new ones. Coat the threads with some anti-seize to prevent that problem again.
 
Ambrose I saw your question in another thread. "I talked to marine shop they charge $85/hr what is yur opinion of degree of difficulty"

I don't believe it's that difficult. The hardest part is reinstalling the outboard, but even that wasn't difficult. Once you have the shaft lined up into the bearing, keep turning it while pushing in/jiggling on the outboard and it'll eventually slide in. A trick that I used that really helped me out... Trim the outboard down as far as it'll go before it hits the ground. I placed a furniture dolly under the outboard to take the weight. It wasn't holding it quite well enough so I wedged 2x4's between the dolly and the fins on the outboard. It rolled right out once the nuts were off. I did the same thing while installing it, helped a lot! since I didn't have to muscle it up and in, just in. It would have been better if I attached the 2x4's to the dolly so I didn't have to balance it as well, but I didn't want to ruin my dolly for this one time deal. I also built a stand for the outboard so it was easier to work on, took about 15 minutes and some old fence boards I had.
 
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