I have an old Viking (Chrysler, sold by Eaton's Canada) 6 hp engine that I've been fixing up. It didn't run when I first acquired it (free from a friend). I did eventually manage to start it, following a bit of work (rebuilt fuel pump, cleaned carb, cleaned & reset points, replaced spark plugs, fixed sticky recoil), and was running nicely, but I decided I should check the impeller because it seemed unlikely that it would still be in good condition, being 50 years old and having sat for the last 10 of those in a carport, and it's tricky to judge if it's spitting enough water when you can't open up the throttle fully for any length of time (it's running in a bucket).
Turns out the impeller is fine, but I've created a whole new set of problems.
In the process of dropping the lower unit, I've buggered up the shifting. I was having trouble dropping the LU in the first place, and read something about shifting it into reverse to do it, so I tried that. PROBABLY should have rebolted it before I shifted the gears. It still did not drop so I read some more and determined that heat was a good idea. I didn't have a blowtorch or a heat gun at the time but I thought "pfft, I'll just run it, it'll warm up everything". I rebolted the leg parts together, THEN shifted it back into neutral. When I started it up, it was obviously not in neutral. It was in reverse, and the gear lever did exactly nothing. It ran fine in reverse, though, and warmed up nicely, and then I *was* able to drop the lower unit enough to get at the screws on the shift rod, and detached it.
And now my gear shifting bits are hosed and I can't get the leg back together. I suspect these 2 problems are related.
(Please bear in mind that I am entirely self-taught, I'm not a mechanic, I'm new to this whole 2-stroke outboard business and I haven't been able to track down a repair manual - I'm working on info gleaned from this forum, Google & Youtube (thanks, chrysleroutboarddude, you're awesome). I'm aware that I've been a bit idiotic in my approach, no need to castigate me further, and I will happily purchase a repair manual for this engine if anyone has a valid link for an online, electronic copy of one, or a known and trusted source for a hardcopy.)
Anyway. When I try to put the leg back together, I get the drive shaft back in perfectly, and there is insufficient space between the lower unit and the rest of the leg to get the 2 screws back in to the shift rod. If I try to fit the shift rod back together before getting the drive shaft in place, I can't get the shift rod to line up.
I feel like there is definitely something wrong here, since it can't possibly be THAT difficult to simply reattach the two parts of the shift rod. I'm not clumsy, they're not tricky screws, it's just pretty much physically impossible, which indicates that something is out of whack - one or both pieces of the shift rod are gibbled and not in the right place.
On the LU, I can turn the drive shaft manually, and the prop turns. If I play with the shift rod on the LU, I can only move it back (away from the prop) about an inch, maybe a bit less, and it feels like that's a direction it's ok going, but it goes back to where it was when I release it. It doesn't move up or down, and if I move it back and hold it, that has no effect on the prop - it still turns in reverse when I turn the drive shaft.
I think there is something wrong with the shift rod (I'm not quite clear how it's supposed to function or on which axis it's supposed to move) or else the dog clutch is stuck and the shift rod just can't move it, or the shift rod has lost its connection to the dog clutch. Whatever, I need to get into the gear case, but I can't get the prop off. BIT OF A PROBLEM.
I removed the cotter pin and the nose cone from the prop, and I can't see a key or other pin or anything, but the prop won't budge. I tried heat (heat gun) with subsequent levering and whacking, with no results. This is the original prop, it HAS been used in salt water, and I fear the prop may be corroded in place. I did track down an exploded parts diagram and I am now sure that there is nothing holding that prop on except corrosion. I'm going to try a prop puller, but I'm open to other ideas too.
Please feel free to offer any suggestions or things to look at. My questions (sorry for the essay) are as follows:
1) How is the shift rod in the gear case supposed to move, to slide the dog clutch? If you're just using fingers or pliers, what range of movement and in what direction would you expect, and what does it mean if it moves only as I've described above? How many pieces in there COULD be messed up? Is there any way to fix any of it without pulling the prop off?
2) If heating and whacking and prying doesn't get a prop off, will a prop puller work? And if so, and if I have a generic puller, is there a sort of hook that can be used to turn it into a prop puller, or is that just asking for the kind of accident that turns you into the laugh of the week at the ER?
3) If I move the actual gear lever can't feel it doing ANYTHING to the upper part of the shift rod that's theoretically attached to it, have I messed that up somehow too, and if so, do I need to take the power head off or can I access the top of the rod another way?
TIA for any advice. Apologies for the length, I figure more info is better than less.
Turns out the impeller is fine, but I've created a whole new set of problems.
In the process of dropping the lower unit, I've buggered up the shifting. I was having trouble dropping the LU in the first place, and read something about shifting it into reverse to do it, so I tried that. PROBABLY should have rebolted it before I shifted the gears. It still did not drop so I read some more and determined that heat was a good idea. I didn't have a blowtorch or a heat gun at the time but I thought "pfft, I'll just run it, it'll warm up everything". I rebolted the leg parts together, THEN shifted it back into neutral. When I started it up, it was obviously not in neutral. It was in reverse, and the gear lever did exactly nothing. It ran fine in reverse, though, and warmed up nicely, and then I *was* able to drop the lower unit enough to get at the screws on the shift rod, and detached it.
And now my gear shifting bits are hosed and I can't get the leg back together. I suspect these 2 problems are related.
(Please bear in mind that I am entirely self-taught, I'm not a mechanic, I'm new to this whole 2-stroke outboard business and I haven't been able to track down a repair manual - I'm working on info gleaned from this forum, Google & Youtube (thanks, chrysleroutboarddude, you're awesome). I'm aware that I've been a bit idiotic in my approach, no need to castigate me further, and I will happily purchase a repair manual for this engine if anyone has a valid link for an online, electronic copy of one, or a known and trusted source for a hardcopy.)
Anyway. When I try to put the leg back together, I get the drive shaft back in perfectly, and there is insufficient space between the lower unit and the rest of the leg to get the 2 screws back in to the shift rod. If I try to fit the shift rod back together before getting the drive shaft in place, I can't get the shift rod to line up.
I feel like there is definitely something wrong here, since it can't possibly be THAT difficult to simply reattach the two parts of the shift rod. I'm not clumsy, they're not tricky screws, it's just pretty much physically impossible, which indicates that something is out of whack - one or both pieces of the shift rod are gibbled and not in the right place.
On the LU, I can turn the drive shaft manually, and the prop turns. If I play with the shift rod on the LU, I can only move it back (away from the prop) about an inch, maybe a bit less, and it feels like that's a direction it's ok going, but it goes back to where it was when I release it. It doesn't move up or down, and if I move it back and hold it, that has no effect on the prop - it still turns in reverse when I turn the drive shaft.
I think there is something wrong with the shift rod (I'm not quite clear how it's supposed to function or on which axis it's supposed to move) or else the dog clutch is stuck and the shift rod just can't move it, or the shift rod has lost its connection to the dog clutch. Whatever, I need to get into the gear case, but I can't get the prop off. BIT OF A PROBLEM.
I removed the cotter pin and the nose cone from the prop, and I can't see a key or other pin or anything, but the prop won't budge. I tried heat (heat gun) with subsequent levering and whacking, with no results. This is the original prop, it HAS been used in salt water, and I fear the prop may be corroded in place. I did track down an exploded parts diagram and I am now sure that there is nothing holding that prop on except corrosion. I'm going to try a prop puller, but I'm open to other ideas too.
Please feel free to offer any suggestions or things to look at. My questions (sorry for the essay) are as follows:
1) How is the shift rod in the gear case supposed to move, to slide the dog clutch? If you're just using fingers or pliers, what range of movement and in what direction would you expect, and what does it mean if it moves only as I've described above? How many pieces in there COULD be messed up? Is there any way to fix any of it without pulling the prop off?
2) If heating and whacking and prying doesn't get a prop off, will a prop puller work? And if so, and if I have a generic puller, is there a sort of hook that can be used to turn it into a prop puller, or is that just asking for the kind of accident that turns you into the laugh of the week at the ER?
3) If I move the actual gear lever can't feel it doing ANYTHING to the upper part of the shift rod that's theoretically attached to it, have I messed that up somehow too, and if so, do I need to take the power head off or can I access the top of the rod another way?
TIA for any advice. Apologies for the length, I figure more info is better than less.
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