Help With 89 Evinrude 70hp! Gearbox Is Stuck!

[puregeek]

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on my motor. I tried to get my motor serviced today, but the mechanic was unable to do it because he could not remove the gearbox from the motor. He said something like the shaft was rusted at the spine. With may attempts with a hammer (sliding hammer aswell). She wouldn't budge a bit. it has separated about 1-2mm from the shaft body. but thats about it. has this happened to anyone else? If so could anyone please shed some light on this problem or if there is an easy way around this?. He said i would pretty much have to re-build or replace.

Puregeek

[a boat]

Hi, this problem is very rare on Evinrude / Johno becasue the area where the driveshaft spline and crankshaft join is dry, not wet like some other brands.These other brands have this problem alot with engines that have not had the gearbox serviced every 2-3 years and the spline greased. I would be surprised with this age engine the gearbox is seized in the crankshaft unless maybe the gearbox has not been off in 20 years. Is he a certified centre and knows what they are doing and I guess he has undone the shift shaft?

Cheers,

Huey.

[puregeek]

Hi, this problem is very rare on Evinrude / Johno becasue the area where the driveshaft spline and crankshaft join is dry, not wet like some other brands.These other brands have this problem alot with engines that have not had the gearbox serviced every 2-3 years and the spline greased. I would be surprised with this age engine the gearbox is seized in the crankshaft unless maybe the gearbox has not been off in 20 years. Is he a certified centre and knows what they are doing and I guess he has undone the shift shaft?

Cheers,

Huey.

Hi Huey

Thanks for the reply. I went to another boat mechanic in my area. He then also tried to pry out the gear box without any success. We even used a forklift and and engine hoist at one stage. But it wouldn't budge. And the only thing we were doing was putting more dinks into the leg. Now the only thing he suggested after that was cut a hole in the leg, cut the shaft, drop the gear box, pull out the power head, somehow pull the shaft out of the spline, and then weld it all back together again. He quoted me $1200 to do this. Do you think its worth doing?. Is this the same thing you would suggest?. Everyone on this forum gives you great reviews, but liverpool to cowan is really far. However in this case i would drive the distance to make sure that the person looking at it and doing the work will do the right thing by me. If you were to do the same think how much do you think it will cost?. I'm also leaning towards just selling the boat off as it and just cutting my losses. Today is wasn't a great day. The sun was shining and i wasn't on my boat.

Puregeek

[a boat]

Hi mate, as I said it would surprise me if we could not get the gearbox off. Not naming names but some brands have this problem, but not Johnson/Evinrude. Not saying it can not happen if that gearbox has never been off in 20 years, but it is rare. Yes you could do what they are saying, but in our experience quotes to do this type of thing are hard, because if the gearbox is fighting, everything else will be tight and time consuming, but I think $1200 would be minium and could easily be more. Lets say you get the powerhead off and the exhaust tube is corroded and a good chance from the sounds of the service history of thsi engine. Also rewelding a driveshaft can be a risk.

With a good run it would only be over an hour to drive here and it would only take us about an hour to see if we could remove the gearbox and if not we can decide what to do then once we have had a look at if the powerhead is in good shape with no bad signs of corrosion and mechanically solid.

Cheers,

Huey.