Force 5HP Drive Shaft Problem. Need some help

[DLCFords]

I just bought a small fishing boat with this motor on it. The water pump was not pumping any water. I was able to find a water pump kit on EBAY. I disassemble the lower unit to make sure the kit looked correct. I inadvertently pulled the drive shaft too far out of the gearbox while removing the old impeller. The shaft seems to be about 3/8" to far out and I can't get it to go back in. The shaft does turn the prop, but there is a clicking noise and a lot of "backlash" could anyone offer some advice on how to get the shaft reinserted?

Thanks in advance,
Dan

 

[Klink]

Welcome to the club! It is rare when you are able to change the impeller on the Force / Gamefisher 5hp without pulling the shaft too far and thus dropping the pinion gear in the lower unit. I've worked on 5 of them in the last 3 months, and can attest to it. 1/8" too far and plink, the pinion gear drops! Anyhow, that's your problem, you dropped the pinion gear in the lower unit, and the only way to fix it is to open up the lower unit. More work! I can help you with that, been there done that, and recently.

First you'll need the Force service manual, you can get them on EBay for at most $15 with free shipping. The Force original service manual is dedicated exclusively to the 5hp, and it is more pictures than writing, an excellent manual for the novice.

I'm a slow typist, so I'll leave it at that. Let me know whatever more info you need. The job is not hard to do provided there's no problems with corrosion locking the bolts you'll deal with in the lower unit. If there is "locking" corrosion, it can get to be cumbersome work.

 

[Klink]

P.S.- to open the gear case, if you look at the base of the prop shaft, you have four allen machine screws, and two thread holes that have no screws in them. The two threaded holes are where you attach your puller screws. First remove the four allen screws, then attach your puller and pull off the prop shaft cage retainer, then remove the big O-ring (if it's not too beat up you can re-use it, or I can send you a new one by mail, I have a few). Once you have the o-ring off, the cage assembly should slide out easily, if not then re-attach a couple of the allen screws to it to help pull it out. Once removed you'll see the dropped pinion gear, slide the shaft up a tad and put the pinion gear undernieth it (sometimes it's easy sometimes it takes a little while) and you are done. It's better to have the shifter in neutral when you do it. Put everything back in the same order and you are done.

NOTE: before anything clean and polish the prop shaft and everything in the way of sliding out the cage, so that you don't scratch up the prop shaft seal. Unless you find water in the lower unit, I would not go through the trouble of changing all the lower unit seals. Mercury no longer sells a seal kit, and those parts are neoprene, which has a shelf life of 5-6 years, so don't buy any old or undated kits on EBay. I can get you new kits if you need them, there's a company that is going to be offering it on my advise soon, but meanwhile, they have a kit for another Force engine that is almost complete and also offer the other parts separate.