Hello, I have a strange issue and I have searched online and through forums for help and haven't found anything related to my issue and I'm hoping someone might have some advice.
So for starters, I have an old 1969 Mercury Thunderbolt 650 that I bought from an old man who had owned it since purchased, but he said it had been sitting unused in his barn for about the last 25 years or so. t looked to be in good shape from outward appearance and I couldn't pass it up for only $100. Well when I got it home, I found out firsthand what happens when a motor sits that long, because all of the grease everywhere has turned hardened and was rock solid almost, and the gear oil in lower unit was a gunked up mess. I sat out to do normal maintenance on it by removing all of the caked up hardened grease everywhere and adding new grease to the motor up and down. I drained the gunk from LU and dropped it to replace water pump and impeller, only problem was it was stuck, as in lower unit would not pull away from upper. Finally after a few days of adding penetrating oil and working at I got the LU off, but I had a new issue now, because the shift shaft is stuck in the upper unit and when I pulled off the LU the shift shaft pulled away from it and came out.
So now I'm stuck with the shift shaft caught in the upper and the LU being stuck in forward and I can't get the shift shaft unstuck.
I know already the headache I'm gonna have getting it seated right back into the LU, but have to get it out of the upper unit first and I'm at a loss. It's like it rusted into the upper or something.
Any help or advice from anyone, I'd really appreciate it.
So for starters, I have an old 1969 Mercury Thunderbolt 650 that I bought from an old man who had owned it since purchased, but he said it had been sitting unused in his barn for about the last 25 years or so. t looked to be in good shape from outward appearance and I couldn't pass it up for only $100. Well when I got it home, I found out firsthand what happens when a motor sits that long, because all of the grease everywhere has turned hardened and was rock solid almost, and the gear oil in lower unit was a gunked up mess. I sat out to do normal maintenance on it by removing all of the caked up hardened grease everywhere and adding new grease to the motor up and down. I drained the gunk from LU and dropped it to replace water pump and impeller, only problem was it was stuck, as in lower unit would not pull away from upper. Finally after a few days of adding penetrating oil and working at I got the LU off, but I had a new issue now, because the shift shaft is stuck in the upper unit and when I pulled off the LU the shift shaft pulled away from it and came out.
So now I'm stuck with the shift shaft caught in the upper and the LU being stuck in forward and I can't get the shift shaft unstuck.
I know already the headache I'm gonna have getting it seated right back into the LU, but have to get it out of the upper unit first and I'm at a loss. It's like it rusted into the upper or something.
Any help or advice from anyone, I'd really appreciate it.