Separating a Stuck Coupler

Ok, I am trying to do my first alignment check. After I bought the boat I had it checked out, and the shop was supposed to check the alignment, but I don't really think they did.

My coupler looks pretty rusty and it has been at least three years. So naturally the coupler is stuck to the tranny. I did some searching on this site, and found a recommendation to use PBblaster, and a metal putty knife with a hammer to separate the coupler. I have been trying that but with no success.

To be honest, I have not been hammering that hard. Is it ok to hammer pretty hard? I don't want to bust something.

I also saw in this thread    

thread

to try an old wood chisel.

Is it really ok to hammer with an old wood chisel? And again, can I really hit it hard? I have a nice big hammer.   

If that doesn't work, eric levine said to try a torch and an air hammer. But I can't tell if he was serious. An air hammer seems like a good way to break something. But again, I have one.   

Thanks for any advice you might have

Jared

Here is a picture of my rusty coupler from two years ago

Jared,
JIH is correct - coupling or packing gland?? You say the picture is from 2 years ago but it shows attention is needed to the packing. It's been overheated from running too tight. If it is the packing nut you're trying to remove, keep in mind it's two pieces. The big "nut" towards the trans and then next to it aft is the hex jam nut. You need to break the jam nut loose first. Was it repacked since the picture was taken?

Moving farther aft, you'll see the shaft log. This is the metal connection to the glass hull. Is it still fastened firmly to the hull? It almost looks loose in the picture!

The coupler is pretty rusty but there looks to be a white index mark on it....maybe it was checked????

Jared - If I were you I would get a 2X4 wedged under the coupler so that you can hammer/chisel without putting any shock load into the tranny bearings. If you ding up the flange surfaces they can be filed back flush. Have at it, give it some persuasion with a BFH.

Brady wrote: scroll right guys and you will see the coupling

I see you're becoming quite the computer expert! I did scroll right but used the page scroll and not the picture scroll!!   

Thanks for all the replies. This picture was taken a couple of years ago when I was working on the shaft packing-- hence the focus on the shaft packing.. As you guys noted, I had apparently over tightened it causing the packing the fail. I just bought some new gore tex packing from skidim, so I am about to try that again.

I did remove those four bolts on the coupler.

I will try my air hammer. I have a cheap harbor freight air hammer with a chisel. I think that might actual be safer than using a BFH.

I will report back.

Jared

PS-- Are the coupler bolts supposed to be stainless? I think I will replace those while I am at it

Good news. I got the coupler separated. It was actually pretty easy once I got a wood chisel. I did not have to hit it very hard.

So the next issue that came up was how to far it needed to be separated to make sure it was free. I ended up separating it to about 1/16 of inch. See the picture.

So then I had to push it back to measure the spacing. I was not sure how to that, so used a bit of hammer and an aluminum drift. It was pretty easy to close the gap.

Now on to measuring. Can anyone give some advice. I have a shim tool, but it is really hard to tell what fits and what doesn't. What is the correct technique for using the shims to measure the gap? I basically just kept putting in larger shims until they would not go in any more. But that is tough, because I am not sure how hard to force the issue.

So can anyone give me some specific advice as to how to accurately measure with shims?

My current best guess is that the alignment seems pretty close top, bottom and starboard, but that the port side is too close. I would say it was about .010 or .008 too close on the port side (compared to what I was getting in the top, bottom, and starboard). But I would like to try it again if someone could tell me the best way to use shims.

Thanks

Jared

Pete, confuse and conquer....
maybe Kieth can unlock the thread and we will finely hone the topic,
touch and measure, but i can see by the pics up top he is not touching and measuring and i could see clarification is needed

Jared,
Yes you've got the idea. Moving the front of the engine over starboard will tighten the gap on that side. It will also shift the flange centerline to port so you need to watch that. In Eric's thread, there's some pictures showing the mounts and loosening the "pinch" bolts so the engine can be shifted sideways.

sjpitts wrote: That seems like it would be easy enough, but it also seems like it would be hard to move it very precisely. After all, I only need to move .008 . It seems like it is going to be hard to only move it that amount-- and that it would be easy to overshoot it. How do you avoid overshooting?

No, you'll need to move the front end more than .008 to get that at the coupling. If you trig it out, you can get a rough idea. I'd do it for you but I flunked trigonometry!!

Jared,

I just got done doing this on mine and it was more difficult than I thought to shift mine over. I got some PB Blaster in the shanks where the motor mounts slide. A crowbar worked well, and I also used a 4 x 4 post piece that I tapped. When it struggled to move, I loosened one side, and loaded it up, then tightened. Then I loosened the other side and "tapped" out the loading, like was just mentioned. You keep working it until you get it right. I got mine to .002" difference.

Mine required the front to move about 1/4"-1/2" to get it right. I may have been a little off on the measurements on my rebuild. I would agree that just realigning without a rebuild probably doesn't require that.

Jared,
I feel Chris is confused and consequently confusing you. Alignment does often involve ups and downs as well as side to side. Yes, the up and down is via threads on the mounts but the side to side does involve loosening the pinch bolts and sliding the mount on the mount rods. It's just like Eric in his thread explained.

Chris,
A wire gauge? Get out of the stone age!! I'm not flying in a plane equiped with one of your RR engines anymore!!

sjpitts wrote: So is there anything special about these bolts? I want to replace them when I am done. They look like ordinary stainless to me. But I am not really sure if they are stainless. Jared

WHy do you want to replace them?