More Rear Oil Seal - Coupler Removal Issues

[GraceSea]

I am trying to replace the rear oil seal on my A-4/Columbia 28 Mk1 (or tighten the lock nut as noted in Don's video (there is a bit of fore and aft play in the shaft)). I have an unusual coupler (damper)?, as shown in the attached photos. I removed the two set screws in the rear portion, but the coupler will not budge. Work space is VERY tight, and trying while in the water.

Any suggestions?

[Al Schober]

Remove the 3 big bolts holding the coupling to the transmission flange. The coupling and shaft should slide back.
This will expose a large nut holding the transmission flange in place. Remove the nut, lock washer, and the flange.
You'll be left with two flanges against the gear box. Remove the 6 bolts and the first flange, which carries the oil seal. Don't mess with the second flange unless you want to replace the bearing.

[Grappler]

I had to remove the direct drive coupling and rear oil seal retainer from my “new” A4 yesterday.

I watched a YouTube video of Don Moyer explaining how to do it, and that helped.
Here’s the link:

https://youtu.be/9fslgwjnuQc

When I got to the part where Don used a special tool to keep the oil seal retainer from turning while removing the 1 1/8” nut, I used his suggestion to use a pipe wrench instead. But I had to get a 24 inch pipe wrench, which just barely had enough jaw opening to grip the 3.5” diameter coupling.

When I got to the part where Don used 3/8” fine thread bolts to pull the coupler off, the only bolts I could find were too short to do the job. And I did not have the other special custom tool he used to do it. So I bought a cheap 4” gear puller from Menards, and that pulled the coupler off.