Re: 1967 johnson 33hp super sea-horse lower unit help
Hi Scully. I used to have a '66 33hp. Dropping the LU is easy. First remove the oval plate on the right side of the motor. Put the motor in Neutral and remove the bottom bolt from the shift rod connector entirely, then shift in to FWD. This should help decouple the lower shift rod from the shift rod coupler. It may stick a bit so you might want to hold on to the lower shift rod while you flip it in to FWD. Once the lower **** rod is decoupled, you can move on to the bolts which hold the LU on to the exhaust housing. There should be 4-5 hex head bolts that screw upwards and secure the LU to the exhaust housing. Don't remove them all entirely at fist. Back them out about 1/2-3/4 of the way and pull down on the LU. You should feel the driveshaft dislodge from the underside of the power head. Sometimes they can be a bit stubborn, particularly is there's some corrosion, but be patient it will come loose. Hopefully, yours will come free. It's good to leave them in a bit so the LU doesn't drop out unexpectedly. Now you can remove the bolts the rest of the way. As you remove the LU, make sure that the copper water uptake pip remain in the LU and disengages from the top of the waterpump housing. With the tube in place, all of the bolts removed and the lower shift rod decoupled the LU should slide right out. It should consist of the gearcase and the foot topped with the waterpump housing and the driveshaft and lower shift shaft protruding out of it. Here's a link with pics and some more explanations on dropping the LU and giving your motor routine maintenance and an overall tune up. The model featured isn't the exact same as yours, but all of the procedures are. Aside from the cosmetics, these old OMC motors didn't change much over the years. Which is great. Once you get the hang of tinkering around on one of them you can pretty much do it to all of them. Hope this helps. Using the search term "Big Twin" will get you lots of info on these old motors too. Good luck.
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/columns/max/24/index.cfm
