formuladoug
Recruit
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2016
- Messages
- 3
Hi Folks,
First post here, and I read Don S's sticky on how to post, so hopefully I'll do this correctly. BTW, I did search the forum (and the net in general) for hours, read for hours, checked sticky's and read the service manual before posting this. I have a circa 1996 VP SX drive, I'm replacing bellows, rebuilding the un-rebuildable square-end rams, replacing the prop, replacing the anodes, and painting it, all for the first time. I've had the boat two and one half seasons and while the ram rebuilds and prop replacement are due to failure and wear (respectively), the bellows replacement is purely PM. The painting is due to corrosion-based flaking of the existing paint. It is time as I've had the the thing for 2 seasons and this will be the start of my third full season. The drive was new to the boat when I purchased it but it had been sitting for about four years prior to me buying it. I've been building, servicing and racing cars for about 35 years so I'm not mechanically inexperienced. However I am a total noob when it comes to marine mechanical work. The project has been going well but I've reached a challenge: the pivot bolts on the bell housing are frozen solid. I soaked them for a week with PB blaster, and have used upwards of 150 lb ft of steady-state loosening torque and nearly 175 lb ft of cracking torque on them (I have the correct spline tool), and they are not budging. I'm fearful to apply heat as I'm not clear how they are constructed (e.g. mix of metals, thread locker, etc). I worked around the issue, have completed everything but painting (I'll do a hack paint job to hold me over until the end of the season), but would like to loosen them for the "next time" as I'm sure the corrosion will simply continue to "weld" these things.
Thanks,
-Doug
P.S. My next post won't be this long. I simply felt that I had to get those pre-qualifiers out of the way since I'm new to this forum. Thx.
First post here, and I read Don S's sticky on how to post, so hopefully I'll do this correctly. BTW, I did search the forum (and the net in general) for hours, read for hours, checked sticky's and read the service manual before posting this. I have a circa 1996 VP SX drive, I'm replacing bellows, rebuilding the un-rebuildable square-end rams, replacing the prop, replacing the anodes, and painting it, all for the first time. I've had the boat two and one half seasons and while the ram rebuilds and prop replacement are due to failure and wear (respectively), the bellows replacement is purely PM. The painting is due to corrosion-based flaking of the existing paint. It is time as I've had the the thing for 2 seasons and this will be the start of my third full season. The drive was new to the boat when I purchased it but it had been sitting for about four years prior to me buying it. I've been building, servicing and racing cars for about 35 years so I'm not mechanically inexperienced. However I am a total noob when it comes to marine mechanical work. The project has been going well but I've reached a challenge: the pivot bolts on the bell housing are frozen solid. I soaked them for a week with PB blaster, and have used upwards of 150 lb ft of steady-state loosening torque and nearly 175 lb ft of cracking torque on them (I have the correct spline tool), and they are not budging. I'm fearful to apply heat as I'm not clear how they are constructed (e.g. mix of metals, thread locker, etc). I worked around the issue, have completed everything but painting (I'll do a hack paint job to hold me over until the end of the season), but would like to loosen them for the "next time" as I'm sure the corrosion will simply continue to "weld" these things.
Thanks,
-Doug
P.S. My next post won't be this long. I simply felt that I had to get those pre-qualifiers out of the way since I'm new to this forum. Thx.