'88 60 hp Mercury outboard, upper driveshaft seal order?

Burban NewFly

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Feb 18, 2014
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Hey all! So I'm in a bit of a bind and I'm hoping someone might have some experience that can shed some light on my situation for me. I'm a carpenter by trade, not a mechanic, so forgive my terminology. My lower end blew a seal and leaked leg oil on the floor of the shop after a session on the water and its been sitting for a bit. My brother-in-law came up for the week so he decided he'd take it apart and fix it for me while I was at work. He took it apart and found what was wrong with it (water pump gasket seal). I ordered up the rebuild kit that day and two days later, the wrong kit comes in. Ok no biggie, it'll be tight, but the seals will be here Friday. Friday morning rolls around, wrong kit again. That's a shame because now my bro-in-law is heading home and I have to put it back together, not a big deal.

So I've got the water pump reassembled with all new gaskets and an impellor. Its all tickity-boo and the lower leg is ready to go back into the main motor, except for... These three seals on the splines of the upper drive shaft. Unfortunately he doesn't remember the exact order they came off, so he told me to research it. I believe they are 31, 32, 33 in this mercury parts catalogue linked to the post. Here's a pic of them loosely on the splines as it appears in the exploded diagram.

2iihj7a.jpg


When I insert the leg and get everything lined up it all goes together fine until the last 3/8" theres resistance. It seems like those seals cover a lot of the splines and doesn't seem to make much sense to me. Is this order correct or do I have in these in the correct sequence? I don't want to crank the seals home if they aren't aligned properly.



Thanks for your time everyone! I realize the order of operations up to this point have led to my problem, I normally wouldn't let someone take apart something blindly without the parts already lined up, but I rolled the dice and I lost on this one. I would also normally take note of the placement of every item I take apart but I wasn't there for this one. Any insight you can give would be greatly appreciated!
 
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emckelvy

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OK, the rubber washer at the bottom of your stack-up is the "pump slinger". It just slides down the driveshaft & sits against the top of the upper pump body, and it keeps junk/crud off the top of the pump body, where it otherwise might get in the pump and cause damage. I like to grease it up real good with waterproof marine grease (boat bearing grease such as the blue Sta-Lube, etc.).

The next piece up from the slinger is a plastic collar with splines in it. Push this collar down as far as it will go on the driveshaft splines. Note that there's usually only one way it'll fit properly against the bottom of the splines, so make sure to try it both ways. Whichever way goes farther down onto the bottom of the driveshaft splines is correct.

Upper piece is the rubber seal that sets against the bottom lip of the crankshaft, and keeps water out of the crankshaft/driveshaft splines. Looks like you've got it oriented correctly. Make sure you put some waterproof grease (or mfr's "spline grease") on the driveshaft splines before installation. Make sure to wipe off any grease you get on top of the driveshaft. You can leave a thin coating on the preload pin.

I'm thinking you don't have the plastic piece turned the right way. As I recall, it should slide farther down, to the bottom of the splines. This would probably be enough to cause your problem.

Another assembly issue that causes the L/U to not want to seat is misalignment of the upper shift rod with the shift shaft. Normally, you'd have the L/U in Neutral (along with the control box) and reinstall that way, rotating the flywheel as you push up the L/U.

But sometimes there's a slight amount of preload on the shift cable, and when the L/U is removed this pushes the upper shift rod out of alignment. The solution to that is to disconnect the shift cable and position the shift arm so the cable attachment "slider" is about half-way up the groove in the throttle/shift cable bracket.

You may have to jiggle the shift arm a bit fore/aft to align. You'll know you're there when you can move the shift arm and the shift shaft moves & shifts the L/U.

Hopefully that gets you there; other issues are with the exhaust tube seating into the rubber gasket (warped/damaged gasket), and water tube not feeding properly into the pump (damaged rubber grommet or tube). Be sure to grease up all studs, end of exhaust tube, end of water tube (or the grommet, whichever works best for you), driveshaft, shift shaft splines (no grease on top of the shift shaft).

HTH.................ed
 

Burban NewFly

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Feb 18, 2014
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emckelvy Thank you very much for the indepth and informative response. With this info Ill be well on way this afternoon, Ill let you know how I make out.

Thank you for your time!
 

Burban NewFly

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Feb 18, 2014
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Got 'er all back together tonight, ill fire it up in the morning and take her out for a test drive tomorrow. Thanks again emckelvy for your tips, they tipped the scales in getting this job done. You have some good karma coming your way.

Thanks everyone, be safe and enjoy the sunshine!
 
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