Shift Shaft Seal

The @#$%^& shift shaft seal on my 1962 RDS-24 has been a real pain to replace. There is a pressed in brass bushing that you are supposed to hammer out using a special tool. So I purchase the tool, however, the brass piece refused to come out. So I looked at the diagram in the manual. See it turns out that the manual shows the parts coming in from the top of the gear case, but they don;t they come in from the bottom. Finally I just tap it and pull the bushing out. Guess it was stuck good from 40+ years of service. You can read about the whole saga as well as the folks that helped as well as additional links right here http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=578384.

A new busing as well as other seals and parts are on the way from www.marineengine.com. This is also an excellent website. Just put in your part numbers. If it is available you just click and order it.

Lower Gear Case

Pulled the plugs out of the lower gear case hoping to see nice black oil. No luck. A brown watery muck slowly tripped out. So time to split the case and take a look. The screws came out easily. Too easily !! They were only finger tight. Got the cover off and the gears were covered in brown muck. Sprayed everything with a lot of cleaner and eventually there were nice clean gears sitting there. Everything came a part nice and easy. Bearings look. Seals need to be replaced. Seal kit is on the way. After cleaning and new seals I think it will be good for reassembly.

Taking the motor further apart

Today I removed the motor pan from the housing. Then removed the housing from the mount. Turns out that the two bushings that mount the housing to the mount are REALLY REALLY hard to get out. Finally I double checked that replacements units were available and then I cut them out. The parts separated with no problems. Now time to get everything cleaned up. Looking for someone who does bead blasting.