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  1. harringtondav

    Mercruiser 165 Gimbal Bearing Removal - First timer needing advice!

    Gimbal bearing pulls are sometimes fairly easy. Mine have always been a fight. A good three jaw slide hammer will eventually get the job done. I rigged up a plate puller to use with my slide hammer head. The plate rests on the aft face of the bell hsg over the studs. The nut winds the puller...
  2. harringtondav

    Thank you iBoats Forum

    Yesterday was my 1 yr. anniversary as a member. And I'm grateful to iBoats for providing and maintaining the forum, and super grateful and appreciative to the best boating experts in the world who contribute. I've learned far more than I've contributed. My only regret is I didn't become a member...
  3. harringtondav

    3.0L front mount fix

    While snugging up the hoist to remove my neighbor's rotted '88 3.0L timing cover, I noticed the front mount followed the hoist up. I wasn't surprised because of a ring of black goo around the head of one of the lags. The lags had stripped out the wood, and someone tried using black sealant to...
  4. harringtondav

    Sometimes hoarding is a good thing

    Downsizing, de-cluttering is a popular trend. "If you haven't used it in two years, pitch it". Bwahaha. Good thing the wife keeps her mitts off my tools. I'm breaking out this 44 yr old dwell tach to check the ignition on that charity case '88 Cobra 3.0L I've been working on. I haven't used...
  5. harringtondav

    Transducer Location

    Hope this adds some value to the thread. Mostly horse pucky luck on my part. My dealer RTV'd this external flat iron transducer to my bilge floor. Not per instructions. It should have been epoxied, but he wasn't quite ready when I picked up the boat so he winged it. Iffy signal that caused my...
  6. harringtondav

    Need some general direction - for my neighbors kid

    Lou C : Homemade adjusting gage. Close enough for the girls I go out with. When the Admiral is feeling cranky, she tells me to pitch the odd and ends lumber scraps in my shop. She doesn't recognize valuable raw materials.
  7. harringtondav

    Need some general direction - for my neighbors kid

    I'm getting ready to wrap up this charity project. Waiting for an O ring and a seal that were shorted in the kits. Cobra newbie mistake here. I didn't pay attention to how deep - how many turns on the 'chicken lips' shifter rod had before I removed it to pull the prop shaft and re-seal the gear...
  8. harringtondav

    We tell our kids "no means no". As adults we know the limits of rules

    I'm prepped to get some hate mail on this one, but you can successfully violate the 'rules', sometime. Merc manual states if the prop shaft runout exceeds .005", replace the shaft. Same instructions I'd give if I were selling prop shafts at 400% mark up. I've successfully straightened two Merc...
  9. harringtondav

    How long to pull a motor?

    If you have a garage or a sturdy gable roof car port, this may be your answer for a hoist. I glued and screwed four cross members near the peak of my truss garage. Just low enough to slide a 4x6 beam under. I shimmed the outer two supports 1/8" higher than the middle two to compensate for beam...
  10. harringtondav

    Skinny water river boat - Sand and logs

    I've seen a few long tail OB boats up on the Miss river in Dubuque IA. The river is plenty deep, so I suspect they're used in stump fields and shallow lakes off the channel. Essentially an air cooled horiz shaft lawn mower motor on a 6' shaft. I don't know the max power these things come in, but...
  11. harringtondav

    Gonna be a while longer before I can splash our boat.....

    Midwest flooding has cost many a lot of loss. Lucky we're just inconvenienced. But I'll still whine. We finally opened our Dubuque IA Miss river place yesterday. 19' gauge, just low enough to cross the road to get in. Pic shows 18.6' today. Nine feet above normal, seven feet above where I can...
  12. harringtondav

    Necessity is the mother of invention

    Hillbilly shimming fixture Pretty confident this will work. Based on the assumption the current pinion/shaft/shims combo is correct. And I believe this is correct. The wear pattern on the FWD gear and undamaged pinion teeth is fine. This rig repeats at a .021" feeler. I'll torque the new...
  13. harringtondav

    Necessity is the mother of invention

    kenny nunez You right, kinda. Not a pin hole, more like bird shot. Seems the recirc pump had been dribbling on the cover for some time and rotted it from the outside. I've got JB or some kick a*s West Marine 404 high density filler + their epoxy/resin. Excellent stuff for metal bonding. The top...
  14. harringtondav

    How not to dock a boat

    I think you may need a Facebook account to view this. Hopefully not. I've seen this in the flesh a time or two. https://www.facebook.com/BadBoatDrivers/videos/2323045674603323/
  15. harringtondav

    3.0L Crankcase front cover oil seal removal

    This is a boating technical topic. Sorry for the rule stretch. the GM 3.0L covers many experts, so I'm chumming wide here. Getting ready to pull the balancer on my neighbor's 3.0L Cobra. I really, really don't want to remove the front cover...loosen oil pan, etc. I recall a past post where a...
  16. harringtondav

    Necessity is the mother of invention

    I'm again invoking Scott Danforth , kenny nunez , Lou C for Cobra know-how. So far this 31 yr. old outdrive has looked very good.....until now. The propshaft pinion is at the point of catastrophic failure. I'll deliver the bad news to my neighbor when I'm finished here. I found Sierra and GLM...
  17. harringtondav

    Necessity is the mother of invention

    First, sorry about cloning my original post https://forums.iboats.com/forum/engine-repair-and-maintenance/omc-i-o-inboard-engines-outdrives/10698896-need-some-general-direction-for-my-neighbors-kid on fixing my neighbor's '88 Cobra bent prop shaft which hasn't been generating any 'latest...
  18. harringtondav

    Tracing an old boat's title and registration...?

    I'm replacing the prop shaft in my neighbor pal's son's '88 Cobra. We just had a chat. Seems the son bought the boat and spaced off the paperwork. Now a problem since Iowa has new reg. stickers this year. The kid (third owner) needs to do his part by shaking down the seller for the...
  19. harringtondav

    couple questions about U joint bellow replacement on Alpha One

    Adhesive under all hose clamps. None at the aft end of the drive shaft bellows. Clips around the hose clamped ends of the bellows. Their intent is to ground the hose clamps to avoid corrosion. Strange, since the clamps are SS.
  20. harringtondav

    Need some general direction - for my neighbors kid

    I split the outdrive. Man, that was a knock-down-drag-out I ended up hanging the drive from the lifting eye/hoist and pounding off the lower case with an oak block and 3# machinist's maul. The water tube seal was really, really sealing. Another question: How does the gear lube communicate...
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