M5B- driveshaft won't seat

[Wee Hooker]

Ok, stuck the new Wp impeller in so I could use the boat this week while on vacation. ( The old one had two of six vanes left! I'll order a complete kit and do it right in a few weeks before my ME trip. ) Everything was going GREAT and quickly until I went to reinstall the lower leg. Put the shift in Reverse as manual states, slide in drive shaft and align shift rod linkage in the clamp but the shaft is stopping about .25" short of getting the water tube into the Wp housing. ( about a 1.5" gap between upper and lower leg mating surfaces. I've tried turning the fly wheel and prop shaft to align splines but nothing seems to work. Splines look good. Upper shift lever and lower gearcase shift rod are both in reverse. What am I doing wrong? Should I tap the skeg (gently) with a rubber mallet? ( Really don't want to do this!) This was supposed to be the easy part but I'm about ready (after 2-3 hrs) to drop off the mess at the dealer!
Any help DEEPLY appreciated.

 

[pvanv]

Re: M5B- driveshaft won't seat

It's a matter of the fell and finesse in aligning the splines. As long as the driveshaft isn't twisted, it will go back in. In difficult cases, sometimes it's easier to pop off the powerhead, install the LU, and then reinstall the powerhead. Tapping won't help you until the splines are at least partially engaged. Don't get a blob of grease on the end of the driveshaft, or it will hydraulically hold the shaft out of the crankshaft.

 

[Wee Hooker]

Re: M5B- driveshaft won't seat

Thanks for the reply. Actually after 4+hrs of struggling, I found the answer. It wasn't the splines at all. I'll post my findings for history /future search.

First,
before attempting to reinstall the leg, put the prop back on (with nut loose). This will allow you to turn the prop to align the head and shaft gears from your end vs struggling to find help or stretch to turn the fly wheel.

Also, make sure the drive shaft makes it into right spot in the block. Sounds simple but it's not hard to miss the raised tube/ hole completely. I used a head lamp to look up there and assure the shaft slid into the right spot ( when the shaft is about 2/3 the way in.

Now here is THE SECRET (that was not covered in my repair manual!). The shift rod on the lower unit must not only go through the linkage clamp but MUST POKE THROUGH THE SMALL HOLE ON TOP OF THE LEG. ( ahould protrude about 1/4" if gear box is in reverse as it should be.) The tip of this rod is used to release the leg's lock lever when the motor is in forward /neutral. Since the lever covers the hole when the shaft isn't there, it's easy to oversee the need to go through that hole completely. If you do not get the end of that rod to protrude out the that hole, it bottoms out in the leg and stops you from seating the whole lower unit that last 1.5". Since it's bent to start with, you have to twist the rod a bit to get it's tip to line up under the drive shaft. But once you do, and the the rod hits that hole, the lower unit slides right on and you can feel the stress just melt away
Hope this helps someone along the way.

Dave

p.s. This a great motor! Plenty of power, light weight fot its size and runs as smooth as some 2 cylinders.

 

[Wee Hooker]

Re: M5B- driveshaft won't seat

BTW: This is what was left of the impeller and it still pumped a decent flow @ mid throttle!