Steering Arm / Swivel Pin 50 HP 4S

I have a 1995 50HP 4 Stroke with a bad steering arm. I noticed one of the bottom yokes was cracked when I replaced my water tube gasket so I decided to replace the arm altogether as I am sure that the added stress on a single yoke will eventually lead to failure.

I have removed the powerhead, lower unit, and adapter plate. I also removed the retaining ring. I was kind of hoping that the arm would magically drop as I pried the ring off but there is no such luck. The factory manual has no info on this procedure.

Am I missing something or should I just get a dowel and a deadblow hammer tomorrow and beat the tube out of it?

Re: Steering Arm / Swivel Pin 50 HP 4S

Well . . . I cut a dowel and went to work with the deadblow hammer. It came out. I left PB Blaster on it overnight.

I am glad to have dissected the outboard this far, there are a few bolts I will replace and one broken off in the adapter plate. I am taking it down to a machine shop with an EDM tomorrow.

As you can see in the other picture, the yoke had some hairline cracks that went all the way through. I am wondering if this had any effect on performance, but really doubt it. It would not be fun to have the other fail and then lose the top two bushings. Without checking under the cowling, I doubt I would have had an idea until it was catastrophic.

Anything that anyone can think of to double check as long as I am this far into it?