[Mo]

Hi,
So if I understand correctly, this engine is out of the boat and you just want to change out the reversing gear. If that is the case I did it about a year ago. I had a spare engine with the reduction gear that had to be switched to a direct drive. What I did was remove all the bolts and two dowels. It popped apart with a few smacks of a huge rubber hammer.

The tricky part for me was putting it back on. You will fine two dowels that have to be tapped out. Mine moved no problem, again with the rubber hammer. Those dowels do not go back in until after you have placed the replacement drive on and bolted it up.

Putting the new drive on: You have to be very careful because there is a 90 degree angle between the reversing gear housing and the block. It is crucial that the junction there is perfect. The dowels in place caused a problem for me so I left them out. They caused the gasket to bunch up which would have resulted in an oil leak. It would then have to come back off and be done right.

So what I did after screwing up the new gasket was use permatex black heavy duty, high heat, engine gasket maker. I cleaned all surfaces, then had a friend help me place the reversing gear on perfectly so that that 90 degree corner mating surface has gasket maker. I then put in two bolts finger tight to ensure it was lined up and left it sit there for about 4 hours. After that I came back and tightened everything up. Personally, I didn't put the dowels back in because there are bolts around them as well and it's been fine.

The care of placing the new one was key as many people get leaks in the corner of the joint where the reversing gear and the engine meet.

I installed the engine in the boat a couple of days later and started it and low and behold found a leak. Initially thought I screwed up that joint at the 90 degree angle but was relieved to see oil drip from the water pump bolt. Removing the water pump again and resealing fixed it.

It's been a year and I've motored the engine about 100 hours this year. Did a 440 nautical mile trip where I motored something like 92 hours without a problem of any kind.

When I got into that it was the first time Id had the reversing gear off one of these and I spoke with Al Schober who had way more knowledge than me. It went very smooth and I was so pleased.