Outboard question

keith18, Aug 7, 12:58am
i have a couple of 90 hp johnson ocean pro 2000. i wanted to change the impeller and the drive shaft has stayed in the engine ,so basicly cant get it back together as the plastic key for the pump drive wont stay on. i obviuosly need to assemble it with the drive shaft in the gearbox first . ive given the shaft a fairly good pull and it wont move, any ideas . thanks

crzyhrse, Aug 7, 1:17am
Hold the key in place with a bit of grease.

ralphdog1, Aug 7, 1:48am
How did the key exit the pump housing without doing any damage to the top of the pump housing/seal!
Can you build a simple slide hammer to get the shaft out!

keith18, Aug 7, 2:10am
yeah tried that slide hammer idea ,it seems pretty firm. the key is a nylon wedge sort of thing.it stayed on the shaft ,but puting it back you would never no if it was still in the right place . i basicly need to be sure the drive shaft does come out of the engine .

xs1100, Aug 7, 2:30am
check out marineengine.comamerican website but quite knowledgeable and they have a boat repair forum for most makes and models of engines on there at the moment trying to sort a similar problem

xs1100, Aug 7, 2:48am
also try fishing.net.nz they also have a outboard repair section

unclejake, Aug 7, 3:14am
Keith, it sounds from your description that the shaft has come out of the gearbox, but I guess that is not what you mean.

Are you saying that you have the gearbox removed from the leg and dropped down a short distance, but you can't fully withdraw the gearbox!

If so then check your gearchange linkage. There is probably a small turnbuckle at the leading edge of the gearbox that will de-couple the gear linkage from the gearbox.

If the shaft has separated from the gearbox then I have no idea what to do as I have not seen that before.

Take a photo

unclejake, Aug 7, 3:47am
A quick Google suggests the later Johnsons had a two pice driveshaft, but it doesn't tell me how to release the upper shaft

keith18, Aug 7, 8:15pm
yes have the gearbox completely off so got the gear rod /water pump/exhaust pipe sections . the prob is i need the drive shaft fitted to the gearbox first to put it all back together , then slip it all back up as a unit alligning the drive shaft/ water pipe /and gear rod all at once.

keith18, Sep 20, 8:00am
thanks guys , looks like my driveshaft is stuck in the power head splines. bugga !