Re: 1986 50 HP Crank / Flywheel Assembly
Hi there, you should be able to just line up the crank and the flywheel taper using the woodruff key as your guide? Do you have a woodruff key? I have never had the flywheel off my 50hp 3 cyl as I failed to pull it off! As you can see your flywheel has a 'flexplate' or similar which can be unbolted. The only way you can screw up timing is to put this flexplate back on in a different orientation to before. If this is all lined up then you can't fail to line up the flywheel and crank using the keyway as a guide (assuming this motor has a keyway? It surely must have?). That is unless you should have a key and its not been installed or sheared off.
If I have failed to understand your post (probably!) and you just want to get TDC on #1, you need a small tool to rest on the piston crown to measure when its at TDC, then just use a bit of paint to mark this on the flywheel. I'm sure it says how to do this in the manual? I've seen people do this on 4 stroke motorbikes and it worked fine. A disk showing degrees then placed on the flywheel can allow you to set your timing.
Cheers
Al
