Re: Larson Flyer with the PJX powerjet
Hello Paul. It is fairly easy to remove the engine, but a couple of things are tricky. Most of the work is done outside at the drive, and you don't need anything other than ordinary tools. There are several o-rings that you'll need to replace for reassembly, and I would replace the bearings and seals, but I have a parts list with parts numbers I can scan for you.
Basically, you remove the steering cable and shift cables from the nozzle so the bowl can be removed. Then you remove the bolts for the bowl. If you have never had the bowl off, it can be tough to get off. After I removed the bolts, I wrapped the bowl with a towel and poured boiling water on it, smacked it here and there with a rubber hammer and it came off a little at a time. With the bowl off, you now go inside behind the engine. There is a square retaining housing right at the transom (where the grease fittings for the shaft bearings are). It has four bolts hidden in access holes at each corner. When those bolts are removed, two split retaining rings will fall from either side when you slide the housing apart. The shaft is now free to be withdrawn from the suction housing.
Back outside, behind the boat, you'll see an aluminum alloy nut on the shaft, right against the impeller. This can be hard to remove due to corrosion. I heated mine gently with a propane torch (remember it's aluminum), then I held the shaft through the cleanout hole with a strap wrench. Take the nut off.
Pulling the shaft is cake when you do it the right way. I took the nut to a fastener supply store and bought a steel nut with the same diameter and pitch. I welded that to a piece of pipe that was large enough to fit over the shaft end. It had a pipe cap on the other end with a hole drilled in it that was previously bolted to a slide hammer. Screwed the nut on hand tight, screwed the cap onto the pipe, and two or three easy taps later the shaft is out.
Something to consider before you do this is that you have to remove the impeller from the shaft in order to drive the shaft bearing housing back in. This has to be done by a machine shop unless you have a hydraulic press. It's just a tapered fit with a key/keyway, but galvanic corrosion grips it pretty good. Mine required ~42,000 lbs of force from a hydraulic press to break free. The upside is it just slips right back on.
If you either post or PM your email address, I can send you a PDF file with the instructions for the above from the manual, and the parts list so you can see what is involved. But, I would advise that your first step should be ordering the factory manuals, at least the PJX WaterJet and Engine Components manuals.
