Re: Replacing lower seal kit 1968 evinrude fastwin 18 hp
I finally got the scotchgrip in (I think it actually said scotch weld, but I dont remember now, I'll post a picture of the tube later) and got everything put back together. The stuff I got was pretty thin, not at all like silicone, but after testing the motor out for quite a while in a barrel, it seems to work fine. I lost the memory card adapter for my computer, and I'm out of town for the week, but I'm going to go ahead and finish this up as best I can, and I'll come back and add the pictures when I get back and find the adapter.
To start back where I left off, with the shift rod bushing, the method I posted is for motors where the o ring is inside the bushing, not for the style where the o ring goes under the bushing. You have to be careful on those to not mash the o ring out too flat by over driving the bushing. Anyway, on to the rest of the reassembly. At this point, I did some more cleaning on the shift rod because it had a thick crust of what I assume is mainly carbon from the exhaust on it. I used seafoam on a scotchbrite pad. I also cleaned the joining surfaces of the skeg and lower with some acetone to remove all the old scotchgrip. Before putting the prop shaft and all the gears and all back into the skeg, I went ahead and cut the spaghetti seal, following the directions here
http://forums.iboats.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=191920&d=1367444822 When trimming the seal, I actually took it out of the groove, and laid it on a flat surface, and made the cut with a razor blade, to be sure it was square and flat on the edge. When determining the length be sure it stays pushed against the outer edge of the groove, and cut it so that it is 1/16th of an inch longer that the groove on each side. One of the other links posted by hightrim suggeted 1/32 of an inch on each side, and that might be better, because I had a rather hard time getting the seal to lay in the groove and not buckle and pop out on final assembly. After getting the seal cut to the proper length, lay it aside and get the prop shaft and gears put back into the skeg.
If at any point while the prop shaft was out of the skeg, the clutch dog slides too far on the shaft, there might be a ball bearing or two pop out. If you run into that, just stick it back in to the hole in the shaft under the clutch dog (one on each side, with a spring in the middle) and slide the clutch dog back over them to lock them in. There is a vertical groove on the inside of the clutch dog cut into the splines. That groove needs to line up with the ball bearings, because that helps lock the clutch dog into neutral. As long as you're careful you shouldn't have to worry about any of that though.
Slide the gearcase head assembly back on to the prop shaft and set the entire assembly back into the skeg. The cradle (the c shaped piece that sits on the shifter lever fits into the groove on the clutch dog. Also, be sure the hole in the side of the gearcase head is pointing straight up so that it lines up with the pin sticking down out of the upper part of the lower unit.
