Hello Forum, First of all I would like to thank everyone for all of the information that comes out in this forum.
About 4 weeks ago I purchased my very first boat. She's an older Sundancer 260 that came with a pair of MCM165's and from what I'm able to get from the good folks at Mercursier, MC1 stern drives. I knew this was going to be a project so I'm good with that and hope to have some water testing going on in about a month or so (depending on my time off). What started with a couple of batteries and a starter, has turned into pulling the engines (to replace ring gears), have the exhaust risers hot tanked, and get the new starters installed (out of the boat). The project has also expanded to the stern drives. Partly because I'm a little annal retentive and can't imaging doing a job just half way. I plan to have my grand kids out on this beautiful boat and need everything to be right. This is definitely a DIY project, since I've been turning wrenches on aircraft for the the last 40 years, and have a "Boat Load" of tools in my garage (no pun intended...:>), and I enjoy doing this kind of work. What I find though is that the "Marine Application" of my past experience has me on a learning curve that looks like the "Space Shuttle" tragectory... So many different kits, engine types, installations, and systems, all on just one hull type. Kind of makes my head spin... Okay, enough being wordy... Here's the question for this post.
After I got the drives off, I noted that the port drive shaft bellows had a lot of water in it, and the gimbal bearing was frozen. No problem, I found a great shop here in San Diego that had all the parts needed for this part, and lots of info on how to do the job here in the forum. After I got the bell housing off, I found that the tilt limit switch wiring was bad, so decided to remove the gimbal ring, to strip, inspect, and repaint... Did I mention I was a little annal retentive?
I'm at the point where I need to remove the upper pivot pin, and I'm having difficulty finding info on this part of the project. The info I've found doesn't seem to match the installation I'm looking at. I see that on the underside of the upper pin, there is an 'Allen Screw" installed in the center of the pin and the pin appears to be split. There is also, what appears to be a long (3.5" maybe) locking pin with an allen head, that passes through the aft side of the upper gimbal ring. Both the allen screw in the upper pin and the retaining pin require a 1/4" allen wrench. Both of these are pretty corroded, and I don't want to break or strip the heads.
Does anyone have any suggestions on getting these unfrozen, and getting the pins out? I see thare's a special tool for the upper pin, but think I can manufacture one myself once I get the allen scew out for a thread reference. I'm soaking then right now in "Mouse Milk" hoping to free them up.
My drives S/N is 6161319 and it bolts up to the MCM165 S/N B600593
Here are a couple of photo's of the parts I'm referring to.
View attachment 176043View attachment 176044
Thanks in advance,
Randy O
About 4 weeks ago I purchased my very first boat. She's an older Sundancer 260 that came with a pair of MCM165's and from what I'm able to get from the good folks at Mercursier, MC1 stern drives. I knew this was going to be a project so I'm good with that and hope to have some water testing going on in about a month or so (depending on my time off). What started with a couple of batteries and a starter, has turned into pulling the engines (to replace ring gears), have the exhaust risers hot tanked, and get the new starters installed (out of the boat). The project has also expanded to the stern drives. Partly because I'm a little annal retentive and can't imaging doing a job just half way. I plan to have my grand kids out on this beautiful boat and need everything to be right. This is definitely a DIY project, since I've been turning wrenches on aircraft for the the last 40 years, and have a "Boat Load" of tools in my garage (no pun intended...:>), and I enjoy doing this kind of work. What I find though is that the "Marine Application" of my past experience has me on a learning curve that looks like the "Space Shuttle" tragectory... So many different kits, engine types, installations, and systems, all on just one hull type. Kind of makes my head spin... Okay, enough being wordy... Here's the question for this post.
After I got the drives off, I noted that the port drive shaft bellows had a lot of water in it, and the gimbal bearing was frozen. No problem, I found a great shop here in San Diego that had all the parts needed for this part, and lots of info on how to do the job here in the forum. After I got the bell housing off, I found that the tilt limit switch wiring was bad, so decided to remove the gimbal ring, to strip, inspect, and repaint... Did I mention I was a little annal retentive?
I'm at the point where I need to remove the upper pivot pin, and I'm having difficulty finding info on this part of the project. The info I've found doesn't seem to match the installation I'm looking at. I see that on the underside of the upper pin, there is an 'Allen Screw" installed in the center of the pin and the pin appears to be split. There is also, what appears to be a long (3.5" maybe) locking pin with an allen head, that passes through the aft side of the upper gimbal ring. Both the allen screw in the upper pin and the retaining pin require a 1/4" allen wrench. Both of these are pretty corroded, and I don't want to break or strip the heads.
Does anyone have any suggestions on getting these unfrozen, and getting the pins out? I see thare's a special tool for the upper pin, but think I can manufacture one myself once I get the allen scew out for a thread reference. I'm soaking then right now in "Mouse Milk" hoping to free them up.
My drives S/N is 6161319 and it bolts up to the MCM165 S/N B600593
Here are a couple of photo's of the parts I'm referring to.
View attachment 176043View attachment 176044
Thanks in advance,
Randy O
