Resolved: 1963 75hp Electric Shift Wires

[yorab]

I'm trying to thread my elec. shift wires through the plate in the exhaust tube now. However, I'm having a problem. The inner cover plate won't get into position due to the inlet water tube being too close to the cover plate. At least that's what I believe is happening. I've attached a few pics. It looks like I need to move that water tube out of the way. I thought that I had it lined up so that the hole in the pipe would spray cooling water onto the wires, and therefore, it should be lined up properly but I suppose I may have been wrong.

1) Is the pipe indeed positioned incorrectly?
2) Can I spin it out of the way without removing the lower unit?
3) I broke the exhaust tube plate gasket. One of the thin sides cracked through, but it still is in good shape except for that crack. In this particular case, can I reuse it? Can I use some kind of Form-a-Gasket for this application?
4) The shift wires have larger-diameter ribs lower down the wire. Do I simply slide the exhaust tube cover plate down just until it seals up against the first rib or does the plate need to slide over a few ribs?

I'm sure that one of you guys that have done this hundreds of times may have ran into this same situation. Thanks.

 

[yorab]

Re: 1963 75hp Electric Shift Wires

Re: 1963 75hp Electric Shift Wires

So after some "what-ifs" with my parts motor, it seems like I'll need to remove the lower unit, spin the tube 180 degrees and then put the lower unit back on. I tried to spin the pipe by gently prying while the lower unit was in place, but I think that the pipe will kink before I get it to rotate while the bottom end is in the pump grommet.

I'm still open to any opinions that you may have regarding my earlier questions. I have one more:

5) If I remove the lower unit, can I reuse the gasket? I tightened the bolts to spec (10-12lbs) and used BRP gasket sealing compound. I'm not super cheap--I just don't want to wait days to get the new gasket.

 

[yorab]

Re: 1963 75hp Electric Shift Wires

Re: 1963 75hp Electric Shift Wires

I could not move the pipe by prying with the lower unit in place. I had to remove the lower unit. Once I did, I saw that the pipe was aligned correctly because the hole for the cooling spray was pointing toward the wires. The pipes must have been bent oh so slightly when they were separated from the adapter plate.

I had a buddy help me and we fed the wires up through and slid the cover plate into position. I used a Permatex gasket maker on the cover. I tightened down one of the cover screws so that the pipe wouldn't knock the cover out of position. I then pushed the end of the water pipe into the pump grommet as my buddy slid the lower unit home. I also pulled the wires up through the cover plate as he slid the lower unit into position. All worked well. I also reused the lower-unit-to-extension gasket. It looked fine and since I only torqued the bolts to 11 ft-lbs, I figure that the gasket was by no means crushed beyond use.