[wagner]

Greetings Afourians,

Between work, family and other obligations, various things have kept the A4 swap on our Sabre 28 from happening. Until this week!

The transplant motor is running well on the pallet! Will remove most of the oil before craning into boat.

The existing original (1974) A4 is coming apart and disconnected piece by piece. The only items left to do are remove the shaft half coupling, drain the oil and pull it out. We have removed the starter, alternator, manifold, distributor cap (donated to new motor...) and various hoses/wires. Motor mount bolts came out ok.

the shaft half coupler has one bolt out and two bolts remaining. both of them are wicked rusty and refusing to budge despite a liberal PB blaster regime and an impact driver positioned by a contortionist (me). started to cut one of them using an oscillating multi tool (more contortion), but was slow going. I can get an angle grinder in there...just barely...but I am a little hesitant to start throwing a lot of sparks in the tight area. There is still a full gas tank about 15" away. The set screw on the shaft is also very rusted and is likely not coming out.

My current thought is to pull the prop and just pull the whole shaft out with the motor and cut the bolts with a grinder or sawzall before pulling the engine out of the open companionway.

Thoughts from those who have been down this road?