i think i have a re-assembly problem

[Menace2Authority]

Changed the water pump impeller on my 79 mercruiser 165 hp with Mercruiser 1 drive. When I put the upper and lowe drive halves back together there was about a 1/16 inch gap between the two pcs. As I was dropping the top down onto the bottom I turned the shaft and felt it drop into place but no matter how many times I tried re-doing it I would always end up with this slight gap between the 2 halves. The o-ring on the shaft was in proper place so its not that. Anyway. Finally I just decided to bolt it together. As I tightened the nuts the two pcs pulled together with no real torque on the wrench. So... Is it normal to have a slight space between the top and bottom halves before installing and tightening the nuts?

Thanks

Rob

 

[zbnutcase]

Re: i think i have a re-assembly problem

Yes. Its caused by the spring loaded preload pin at the top of the driveshaft.