"oops" lower unit fell off

[nwairdog]

OK here is what I have ,

1977 Beachcraft 190hp 302 omc. Finally had it running after 3 months of trouble shooting (this site is full of awesome info).

Now here is what happened,
Took my daughter and her fiancee for a ride up the Columbia river, pulled off for a walk on the beach. Loaded back up tide was going out so I reversed with outdrive up a little because of shallow water. Went nice and slow at idle. Pressed the tilt to put the unit all the way down and throttled her up. Now cruising at about 25 all hell broke lose!! I hear a BANG!! and we do an immediate hard right turn and there we sit. Being new to this (*3rd time out) I didn't know what was up. I went to the back of the boat and did not see an out-drive. Looked a little closer and there it was hanging by nothing but the grounding cable.(and that's not much) so I grab a rope jump in and tie it off to a motor mount so it doesn't end up at the bottom of the Colombian river.
I could tell the whole story of the ship and us in the channel adrift, the pompous sheriff and the awesome man and his son that towed us for 1-1/2 hrs to home but would take to long :}
Now my delima
Damage to the unit surprisingly is minimal. The Ball gears teeth are tore off, the 4 mounting bolts pulled straight out, and the cable ripped apart. Now I have a 1979 Blue water with a 305 ​and omc 800 sitting right beside. I was hoping to put my rebuilt 302 in place of the 305(cracked block). Found out that was to much work.
My main question is Can I simply install the ball gears from the 1979 blue water into the 1977 beechcraft and get back on the water?
Any advice positive or not is greatly appreciated. ( I already know what a dummy I am).
Thankinyou again
Bryan

 

[nwairdog]

here are the boats

 

[southkogs]

Welcome aboard:

What caused the "ka-blam?" You ripped out some pretty impressive bolts if you knocked a drive off ... it's astounding to think simply swapping ball gears would put you back on the water. From your description it's wild the intermediate isn't damaged at the pivot points.

That said, I do think that's the same ball gear and shaft. You can double check part numbers HERE.

 

[superbenk]

Agreed, you must have more damage than that. You also said the shift cable is beat up now, does the other boat have a matching shift cable? I'd give everything a VERY thorough going over & probably do some pressure testing on the drive, etc.

 

[Redrig]

I would think that the intermediate bolt holes have to be stripped out , how else could it just rip off ?

I would be cautious about bolting another outdrive on there and expecting the same thing to not happen again.

either way , that little ground wire saved you some coin.

 

[nwairdog]

I believe the ka-blam was when those 4 mounting bolts stripped out. The holes look as if they were freshly drilled. My first thought when I saw it was someone had loosened them because it was so perfectly removed. Besides the stripped out bolts and the chewed up ball gear everything seems okay. Did not even scratch the two round mounting ears.

Yes the cable was cleanly ripped into two pieces.Was gonna splice it back together or take the one off the other boat.

Now can I remove the ball gear from here, still attached to boat, install a new one

then just remove the unit on the blue water and install the whole package onto the beechcraft? Everything looks to mount the same. The blue water is in great shape. The previous owner never winterized it so the block cracked on each side along with the manifolds.
My first idea was to simply take the cracked 305 out and put my 302 in its place. I have both complete setups made me believe it would be a simple project but I have since heard different.
I am just looking for the simplest way to get me on the water ,if only for one season oh well, I just want to be IN THE WATER!!

 

[Redrig]

There is a shaft that comes out along with the ball gears , and they need to be pressed off . That is not a job that you can complete with it on the boat.

 

[southkogs]

Also ... you wanna' make sure your upper isn't locked up on your drive. I'm beginning to wonder if that's not what caused everything to let go ...

 

[nwairdog]

Well would it be possible to either put the whole outdrive from the blue water and install it onto the Beechcraft or put the 302 from the Beechcraft into the Bluewater,btw, it has a 305 with cracked block and manifolds. Thus making one FULL boat instead of two broke ones? One has a motor prob and the other an outdrive problem. Or simply get rid of both and try starting over, Dont wanna spend this whole beautiful summer on the banks.

 

[Grub54891]

I wonder if you hit a deadhead or a rock, or piling. them rivers have stuff in them quite often.

 

[southkogs]

Well would it be possible to either put the whole outdrive from the blue water and install it onto the Beechcraft or put the 302 from the Beechcraft into the Bluewater,btw, it has a 305 with cracked block and manifolds. Thus making one FULL boat instead of two broke ones? One has a motor prob and the other an outdrive problem. Or simply get rid of both and try starting over, Dont wanna spend this whole beautiful summer on the banks.

I can't find anything on OMC having a 305 in front of everything (but I'm no expert). The 302's were geared 21:19 in the upper, and the 305's were geared 21:16 in the uppers. I believe - you can probably swap the outdrives and put the '79 on the 302. You may need to re-prop to make everything work right though. You're going from electric shift to hydro-electric shift, so you need your controllers and everything mated to the new engine. The intermediate housing may be fine though ... you may just be able to put the new drive and the new shift control on. Someone else'll have to comment on that.

Lower units were geared the same, so that should swap over fine.

That said ... realize that you have an old and outdated (read that parts are gettin' harder to find and not many guys wanna' work on 'em) system. If you can upgrade to a different boat with a Merc or Volvo, it might be worth putting your energy into that.

 

[nwairdog]

No Title

Finally able to try working on her a bit. Trip to the ER. 22 stitches with a open compound fractured right index finger. 2" aluminum pipe + 12" chop saw nearly = missing finger.

There is a shaft that comes out along with the ball gears , and they need to be pressed off . That is not a job that you can complete with it on the boat. So you mean I cannot simply remove the large nut and slide the ball gear off and replace it? It sure slid off easy. Did not seem like it was pressed on. Also, the shaft it was on should it spin freely?

I will figure out the trick to posting soon