dropped ring gear off flywheel 03 -40hp elpto

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macknacat

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Apr 2, 2010
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yep. as i was about to load it on the trailer, no start. Because i had a stuck bendix 2 years ago, i immediately suspected the starter. Talk about myopic! went back to my friend's driveway, pulled said starter [ of course it tested fine] while i was reassembling noticed the big ring gear was just laying down below the flywheel! Of course i am in BFE Wyoming on a weekend.
I kind of half heartedly took a couple of light taps with a hammer to try to reset it. Finally some common sense began to set in- [as in "dude- this is the end of the crankshaft- NO HAMMERS!"] my buddy has a well stocked carpenter shop, so i took all his small and medium jorgensen bar clamps and a few C clamps and began to slowly pull that ring gear back into place. a few blisters and a couple hours later, all but the last few inches had been reset. I was struggling to get any more ooomph on those clamps. I was thinking it just wasnt meant to be - resigned myself to river fishing the North Platte- so i stepped away from the project ...
i heard a "PING" - looked and the gear had popped on up!! It took a bit of vise grip persuasion to gain the last 1/16 inch but it happened! Cranked fine and has run on 2 more outings since. lots of successful starts.

So this is mostly a post about shadetree repairs but i do have a question- has this happened to anyone else? And, being as its just a press on POS assembly, is there any sort of preventative remedy ?
 
Grub54891

Grub54891

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Jun 17, 2012
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6,478
Re: dropped ring gear off flywheel 03 -40hp elpto

Well,I've replaced a fair amount of em. Step 1 remove flywheel, if ya have to get the old one off,just take a punch and work your way around,driving it off. Make shure the surface is clean,no burrs. Step 2: heat the new ring with a torch,hot but don't overdo it. Set the ring in the flywheel,it should slip on pretty easily,sometimes I'll help it a bit with a brass hammer. Let it cool,good to go. And wear welding gloves when handling the hot ring.
Grub
As far as it falling off,if it happened once,it might happen again. I sure wouldn't want to see what would happen if it snagged other parts on it's way down. Replace the ring to be safe.
 
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macknacat

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Joined
Apr 2, 2010
Messages
6
Re: dropped ring gear off flywheel 03 -40hp elpto

thanks for the reply Grub- i called Merc dealer and he insisted that there is no separate ring gear part shown. To be fair, it was a weekend call so there wasn't a mechanic to talk to. However, my service manual does not show that as a separate item either.... I'd rate my mechanic skills as B minus, [and this is only the 2nd outboard i have owned] so not sure if pulling the flywheel is something i should tackle. And , yes, i live in a high desert of southern colorado, so the nearest boat mechanic is 3+ hrs...

in the meantime , i do a careful inspect before each launch and look hard at the seam/ring gear joint to detect any gap.
 
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