Having Trouble removing my Pre-Alpha stern drive

[mynorac]

[FONT=&quot]I?m trying to pull the sterndrive off of my 1969 Sabrecraft boat. This boat has Mercruiser 120/140 with a pre-alpha drive. I have removed all of the 6 bolts on the upper section and it comes apart a little but I cannot get it off. I know from you-tube that you are supposed to put the shift lever forward but still nothing. I hate to start prying stuff unless I know that it is OK to do so. Also I have all the wiring disconnected as I am pulling out the dash to restore the wood. I thought this boat had complete mechanical steering as it is only 16 feet in length but now I see what looks like some hydraulic lines going from the back of the engine to the front of the boat. These hydraulic lines must run off the engine or some other pump. Do I need to get the engine running or the wiring reconnected to disengage whatever is hanging up the sterndrive? I'm also sending a photo of the upper drive assembly with the Cap removed. I posted this on another forum and was told it was junk. May they were correct but I would like you guys to look at it. I know from the photos that it looks extremely rusty but nothing is pitted even slightly. Most of the bad rusty stuff you see in the phots rubs off on your finger leave fairly clean metal below. How the water got in here I don't know. If it toast then I will have to replace the stern drive. In either case I will need to figure out why I can't pull the upper drive off the boat.[/FONT]

 

[Bt Doctur]

That would be a junk drive but if water got into the drive from a leaking bellow the inputshaft is rusted into the gimbal bearing . If you have 2 hyd lines to each cylinder install the top cap and place a block of wood between the cap and transom and GENTLY operate the trim out button to work the drive off.

 

[mynorac]

That would be a junk drive but if water got into the drive from a leaking bellow the inputshaft is rusted into the gimbal bearing . If you have 2 hyd lines to each cylinder install the top cap and place a block of wood between the cap and transom and GENTLY operate the trim out button to work the drive off.

Still confused but if you say the drive is junk I will accept that but again all of this rust is superficial surface rust only. So if it is bad I need to replace it. I got that but you are telling me to use the trim button? I'm not sure you understand that my complete electrical system in down as indicated in my post. So is there another way to operate the trim? Thanks

 

[kenny nunez]

Do you know if the engine runs ? If it does then the best thing you could do is replace every thing from the transom back. This thing is going to be a real can of worms, I have seen these situations many times when I had my shop. It is possible to locate a good used transom and drive with some shopping. Remove the engine, un bolt the transom hardware and pry it off as 1 piece and keep your fingers crossed that the driveshaft is not frozen into the drive coupling then it will be torch time to separate everything.