'93 40hp Johnson gearcase questions

[jgryte]

I have the gearcase on my ?93 40hp Johnson disassembled and am attempting to replace the pinion gear bearing.

I have purchased a new bearing and seal kit, cleaned up the gear case and am beginning the reassembly. I quickly ran across a few questions:

1. I installed the new bearing and found that the gear shaft does not turn very easily in the bearing. I don?t have the pinion gear back on, just the shaft through the bearing and turns very rough. I may not have the bearing in the correct location, vertically, is there an easy way to check this?
2. I noticed that there is no thrust bearing on the upper part of the drive shaft. There are a couple of shims and washers but no thrust bearing??? I never took these off of the shaft so I?m fairly certain it has been running without this bearing. Does that make any sense?
3. If I?m re-installing the same driveshaft, pinion gear, forward/reverse gears, etc. do I need to re-shim the drive shaft or can I use it the way it is?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[jgryte]

Re: '93 40hp Johnson gearcase questions

Well, let me ask this then. If I have the drive shaft and the prop shaft installed should I be able to freely turn both of them?

 

[F_R]

Re: '93 40hp Johnson gearcase questions

I'm not a qualified expert on that particular motor, (too new for me), but just a general comment or two:

Needle bearings must be pressed from the correct end (the lettered end) If you press on the other end, you will destroy it.

If needle bearings are too tight in the bore, the shaft will be difficult to turn and will destruct if you try to run it that way. If anything, it needs to be a tad loose. There needs to be a few thou's clearance between the needles in the bearing. If there is not, it probably is too tight in the bore. That destroys it too, since you have to press on the wrong end to get it out.

The book I looked at shows a thrust bearing and shim. If you are using the same shaft, pinion and thrust bearing, the shim should be OK