I am a new guy here and want to start my first thread by saying a big thank you to the contributors to this forum! I have been "lurking" here after having bought a '89 Bass Tracker with a 40HP Johnson. It had been sitting under trees for a couple of years almost abandoned due to the PO's untimely death. The widow's son and his wife just wanted it out of the yard, so I towed it away. I cleaned it up from the neglect and now it looks presentable; but the engine does not run right, it will not idle without advancing the timing considerably; I have not had it floating yet. I have searched the forums and found so much invaluable information that y'all so freely share. I have the OEM service manual, I have done a compression check (105/105), have checked the spark (jumps 7/16" with blue spark), done the sync, rebuilt the carbs with kits (yes, I removed the welch plugs and made sure the orifices were clean), fresh fuel, inspected the reeds (nothing amiss), checked the coils according to the manual. When I try to set the timing according to the instructions here, I cannot get it to the 15 degrees suggested (factory running setting should be 19 degrees). The manual calls for the link to be set at 2 1/16" and start from there, but this gives me a timing setting well beyond the max shown on the flywheel. Lengthening the link does allow me to get to the 19 degrees, but no further as the threaded portion of the connector would have too few engagement threads. I have not measured the resulting length of the link, but will do so shortly. Anyway, I wanted to take the flywheel off and inspect the powerpack and charge coil to see if anything was obviously wrong, but the flywheel would not come off, stuck hard. I have had it soaking in Kroil with the puller under tension and well as loosening and re tightening it. Thumping, or pecking the puller had no effect and neither did sharp raps on the flywheel perimeter. Impact wrench wouldn't budge the flywheel. Patience, the threads here all said!! My grandfather used to tell me I had the patience of Job, so you might imagine that this task wouldn't defeat me. Oh, BTW, the nut holding the flywheel on shows suspicious red coloring...NOOOOO, the dreaded Loctite. I continued with my puller routine but didn't want to resort to heating with a torch, but decided to slightly heat using a good heat gun while measuring the temp with an IR temp gun. Several times, I heated the flywheel in the vicinity of the crank up to a max of 175 degrees so as not to risk damage to the electronics underneath. Today, I started with my usual routine of making sure the puller was tight, giving it couple of "love taps", then a couple of blows from under the flywheel (with a 2 X 2 for damage control). HOORAY!! After 10 days the flywheel decided it had had enough and came loose. I am a happy 65 year old with his first ever boat/motor. There is nothing obvious wrong under the flywheel, but now I know that. I may replace the pp and charge coil anyway 
I want to say again, Thank You forum contributors! And if anyone else ever has trouble removing their stuck flywheel, even with the dreaded Loctite, be patient, it will come off. Follow the guidelines here and be patient; trust these experts...they know their stuff.
I want to say again, Thank You forum contributors! And if anyone else ever has trouble removing their stuck flywheel, even with the dreaded Loctite, be patient, it will come off. Follow the guidelines here and be patient; trust these experts...they know their stuff.