www.iFourWinns.com

i inherited a 1987 210 horizon, with a small block and a merc alpha drive. been the family boat for a few years, they got a new one so i get this. i need to pull the drive off to change the shift cable, but its very, very stuck. i loosened all 6 bolts and put it in forward, and it wount come off. it stuck from the top area, which leads me to believe that the spline on the driveshaft is stuck in the engine. anyone have any ideas what to do??
thanks,
Chris

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34' 1984 Wellcraft Scarab III
21' 1987 Four Winns 210 Horizon
25' 2008 Sea Ray 250 SLX

i like things with motors. cars and boats mainly. that go fast.

Congrads on the boat, I have the same one. I assume you also disconnected the rams. If its impossible to get the drive off, then yes--the shaft is seezed in the coupler. You might have to cut the shaft with a Saw-Zall from in back of the engine. If you have a hole in the bellows and the universals seezed up and such, this can cause problems that you have.You should be able to get your head behind the engine and see where the coupler and shaft meet. Whats it look like?
Do a search on
http://forums.iboats.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21
I have seen this problem posted Many times.
Chris

Here is what I used to do.

I had a boat with an old MR 1 drive. After removing all the bolts -- and rams -- and putting the shift handle in forward -- I put a good sized block of wood under the skeg such that the skeg would touch it and be a couple of inches off full down. I then would raise the drive by hand and essentially let it fall down and have the skeg hit the block of wood. After doing this only a few times, the seam should open where the drive and the next part forward join. This tells you that nothing else is wrong. Once there is even the smallest opening I have inserted screw drivers/chisels into the opening and slowly widened it using the the screwdriver/chisel as a wedge -- not really hard pounding as in some areas there the metal is thin. BE VERY CAREFUL HERE Once it is separated a quarter to half inch you can see where there is thicker metal and pry harder -- eventually it should come loose. They can be hard to remove because the splines were not greased in the coupler and it hangs up there --the studs themselves can also develop corrosion around them - be sure to grease the splines well in the shaft and coupler not to have that problem again, as well as clean of the studs.

Hope this helps -- or better yet hope you have already solved it

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DaleG -- West Palm Beach FL
2003 240Horizon -- 5.7Gi -Duoprop

thanks for the replies, as of tonight i finally have the drive off. what a Pita that was...

basically i ended up cutting the bellows and looked inside. if the titanic had alpha drives, im guessing the universals would be in about the same condition that mine was. between prying and banging and soaking it with PB blaster, i had gotten it to seperate about half in inch. today i had the idea to put the nuts back on and pull it in, then pry out and repeat. after a few times doing that, ist started moving, but very little. in the end i had a crowbar in there, and was rotating it to put outward pressure on it. finally popped off. the splines were clean and greased, it looks like it was rusted into the bearing. the bearing is pretty well kaput, so now im trying to get that out. few more cans of blaster and a slide hammer should hopefully do the trick.. haha

_________________
34' 1984 Wellcraft Scarab III
21' 1987 Four Winns 210 Horizon
25' 2008 Sea Ray 250 SLX

i like things with motors. cars and boats mainly. that go fast.