Mercruiser 165 I6 transplant

[Steven D]

First thanks to all who have responded and gotten me this far, I've already learned much (some even before I made costly mistakes). More questions...

I'm in the process of resurrecting a 69 Searay 185 with a Mercruiser 160 inline 6 and early 1 drive. I've found a 79 Marquis with a good running 165 and later 1 drive that is rotted out and taking on water but runs great. First thought was to swap motors and go, but after some thought I've decided to swap out the entire package. Bell housing needed to come off the old drive to install new shift cable and after wrestling with the "nail" that holds the pin on (who thought that was a good idea?) and discovering the trim sensor in pieces on the top of the bell housing the obvious choice seemed to do a complete swap over. I'm not having much luck in the manual or online with details of what is involved with this, can I unbolt the outer transom plate (proper name?) and transfer or do I need to do the inner plate as well? The trim lines exit at different points on the two, will this be problematic (motors are still in so its a bit hard to see down in there, trailer has the scaffold to build a tower to pull them now, hope to have them out by end of week)? Any advice/tips/condolences?

Thanks

Steven

 

[ziggy]

Re: Mercruiser 165 I6 transplant

i've not done what yer getting ready to attempt. but one thing i am sure of. you must have a service manual. the oem one. whether or not ya get it in pdf from the stickys or get a book. it's a must have item. there are procedures that are very specific you'll need to be following. check ebay for books. got me a couple off there. ya can get them new from mercruiser too.

if ya like them nails. your sure to love putting the water hose on....

the switch on top of the bellhousing is the trim limit switch. most are broken (inop) now a days. including mine. it's irrelevant. trailer mode will allow trimming, ya just need to be careful not to raise it to high. + i believe that switch is nla too..

even if you swap the whole thing. i'd be doing a shift cable. so you'll get to fight them nails again i'd guess. i thought they were a little bit of a drag to remove. but a long punch in the slot and ya can get them straightened out. try not to break them too. if their the small nails. i believe they're nla.

i don't know about the transom shield. i think it's proper name is gimble housing. but if there's a different routing of trim lines. i'd suspect that ya should be doing inner and outer assy. i've noticed on later mercruisers the gimble housing has a serial number. leads me to think that they's a matched set.

i can't stress enough. get the oem service manual one way or the other. yer getting ready to do the whole nine yards and i'm just sure it'll save ya grief in the end...