2004 Honda 9.9hp four stroke impeller change

[puffitu]

Trying to change the water pump impeller on this unit and having a hard time with the shift rod connector; after un doing the lock nut which was no problem the connecting nut will not budge and I’m afraid to muscle it. It’s really hard to see why it won’t thread up as it should. I soaked it with penetrating oil but still no progress. Heat ??? Not sure how to proceed. Anyone else had this issue?

 

[puffitu]

Hey thanks everyone for the many responses and insightful suggestions! Since I must be the first one in this predicament to update; for those who may actually need help. I ended up discovering that the prior owner or whoever did the impeller last, cross threaded the connecting coupling to the shifter rod. That said, I ended up disconnecting the top of the shift shaft where it connected to the manual shift lever among other things to make more room in order to be able to grab onto the top of the shift rod with visegrips. Not to mention; if using heat it didn’t make much sense to me possibly melting plastic pieces. Doing this ensured the ability to be able to grab at both the top of shift rod and connecting coupling and try to rock it back and forth. After about an hour of rockin and a tad bit of heat; the coupling snapped back onto correct threads and smooth sailing to water pump. Happy boating!