Johnson 50hp 2003 - HELP HELP Top tilt pin STUCK FAST

Hi, Can anyone offer any advice?? I have recently boat a boat with the said engine and I am replacing my Power tilt unit as the current unit was badly corroded at the bottom around the release valve and check valve making it impossible to repair. It took me about a week of heating and hitting to release the bottom pin. I am now faced with trying to remove the top pin, which after 4 days of soaking, heating and hitting doesn't want to move. I even today bought a 7lb hammer for extra whack. I've been using penetrating oil, ammonia (i read this dissolves aluminium oxide). I've even drilled a hole through the left hand transom bracket in order get a drift to be ht square on to the end of the pin. ( This will be filled with metal putty as only the sender unit rests against the piece i've drilled through.)

Can anyone tell me why the top pin has an internal thread on right hand outside edge (the bit with the collar). Has anyone tried screwing a bolt into it to try and turn the pin - Is that what its for?? Any suggestions on removing the pin would be greatly appreciated. I'm afraid i'm going to miss our short English summer if I can't get it out. Please help with any advice.

Yours in desperation.

Re: Johnson 50hp 2003 - HELP HELP Top tilt pin STUCK FAST

I used a 3 & 12lb sledge and good round ended punch. It really takes two people that know what they are doing to get a precise hit to get it to move. Place the punch on the end of the shaft straight as possible ....put the 3lb sledge against it and hit with the bigger sledge (when you hit don't follow through, hold back some to keep control so you don't damage anything or especialy a hand) .......when it moves keep checking the end of the shaft for damage that would keep it from going on through..........use a dremmal grinder of some sort to keep it shaped well enough..........The threads on the other end are prob for a puller which I didn't have or care to engineer.

I never used heat.........figured it would make it worse since the bushings are fiber metal plastic of some sort...............I would say getting the shaft extremly cold would help more.........

I removed the top pin first......the hard one..........the bottom was alot easier...........

Re: Johnson 50hp 2003 - HELP HELP Top tilt pin STUCK FAST

Hi, Many Thanks for your advise. I have eventually managed to get the top pin out. I ended up drilling a 12 mm hole through the left transom bracket in order to get a drift/punch to line up exactly square on the end of the pin. In all it took many many hours of blast heating the surrounding body and then quirting on penetrating oils that were sucked in as the metal cooled. Whether this process made the difference I really can't say as I bought a 7lb sledge hammer that i had to use backhand into the pin. The extra weight certainly enabled a good whack and because the drift was supported through the hole in the left bracket it meant it didn't have to be held in place by a hand. Anyway after many attempts the pin finally moved, after that you know you have it beat as the seal of corrosion/oxidisation has been cracked.

The other thing to note was that I had actually damaged the threads on the bottom pin to such an extent that I took it to a machinist who stripped the and remade the threads and supplied me with a smaller diameter locking nuts. I have installed the replacement tilt unit and packed the pin tubes with grease. I am planning on periodically making sure that these pins still move and will regrease. I cannot stress enough to anyone who has one of these engines and units that its worth the time to maintain these pins. As I for one would not want to go through this procedure again.

So I'm on the final stretch of connecting everything back up so I will hopefully be on my maiden launch this coming weekend. Happy Days