Johnson 20 hp, shaft won't remove from powerhead.

[Bearcamp]

Well I just wanted to remove the powerhead from the base to do some painting and I got everything loose. But when I went to remove the powerhead it would only come up about 1/2". Pulled and pulled but finally removed the lower unit and then it came off. But, I can't get the shaft out off the powerhead. Am I doing something wrong? I've removed them before. It doesn't look rusted, matter of fact it's nice and clean. But it won't budge. 1970 Johnson 20 hp. did see a snap ring, but looks like it holds the seal in. What next? It's soaking with Deep Creep right now.

[Paul Moir]

It's got to be rust seized - there shouldn't be anything holding it at all. The snap-ring is actually on the crankshaft, and it holds the bottom seal on like you gathered.Time, patience, PB Blaster (flip the outboard on it's 'head') is the only way. When that fails, try yelling, swearing and beating it with a hammer. On one nasty Yammy I ended up having to remove the powerhead and mostly dissassemble it with the driveshaft attached to get it out. You may end up removing the powerhead so you can directly access the joint. The Yammy was nice like the Johnny/Rudes in that ripping the driveshaft out of the l/u only screws up the water pump housing.Good luck! (you're going to need it!)

[alcan]

Hi BearcampAnother idea here. Some times the splines get locked together. This can be caused by hitting something or most often caused by shifting from forward to reverse at too high rpm. Try twisting the drive shaft in the reverse direction from engine rotation. Do this while trying to pull at the same time.

[Bearcamp]

OK, thanks for the info. I'll try getting it out tomorrow, Wednesday.Thanks for the ideas.