Re: ball gear replacement
I have replaced mine not too long ago. As Kagee is implying, driving with the tilt in any position other than full down will really tear those ball gears up. I bought a kit off eBay for around $120. Basically, it will come with the seals and the large o-rings. One thing it does not come with is the inner seals in the intermediate housing. In my case I needed them as they were leaking and allowing gear lube to get in the bilge. Just a thought. If everything is looking good, you could just put the new ball gears on and be done with it. But, you have to go to the trouble to remove the shift cable and the drive so you midis well take the plunge and do the seals and I would put new impeller in it while you're at it. Besides, you say the boot leaks, so midis well do it all. As mentioned, the caps on the ball gear nuts typically fail and water gets in and rusts the nut and the shaft. My impact wrench wouldn't put a dent in it. I put the ball gear in a vice and used a breaker bar and it broke the damn vice! After going to the Home Depot for an even beefier vice and trying again, I still could not budge this damn thing. You're going to need heat so you won't be able to do this with the drive shaft and ball gear still in the intermediate or the upper (it will roast the seals). Hell, I even let it soak in penetrating oil overnight and no luck. Finally I secured it real good in the vice and heated it with a propane torch. I attached a 3 foot pipe to my breaker bar and that's what it took to break both them nuts lose. On reassembly you want to use loc-tite on the threads and the splines. Install the new seals back to back, use some sealer around the outside before you drive them in, pack the seals with OMC triple guard grease, and put plenty on the drive shaft splines too.
