by Chris Wicks » Mon Dec 01, 2014 5:33 pm
See photos attached
Having suffered from the stiff gear linkage problem for years and having lived with it by use of a large lever extension..... It really is time to sort it out finally... My Greek Honda dealer said they had removed the engine to free up the linkage, but the problem was not solved. Recently in Chichester I called at a workshop at Dell Quay boat yard where a nice guy fixes outboards... How great it is to talk technical in English!
The engine is 10 years old, I can change an impeller so why not fix the linkage... If the engine was in UK it would have been at Dell Quay by now, but of course it's in Greece... So removing the engine is easy. 8 bolts on the underside of the lower engine casing. Then free up any accessories that prevent the engine lifting out. The starter cord mechanism, the cables and wires... Easy .....
I also removed the lower leg gear housing disconnecting the lower gear lever shaft through the inspection / access rubber grommet..
Finally give the engine a bit of side to side pressure and break the seal of the engine to lower casing gasket.... Then you will get to where I am in the first picture. Lower casing and shaft casing remain. You can now see the shaft of the gear shift lever goes through a casting and enters the top of the shaft casing. There it is connected to the gear lever rods by a single bolt and locking washer (with bent up tabs)...
Remove the bolt so the shaft can be withdraw from the casing.... However first remove the lower casing... 4 bolts so the gear lever shaft can be withdrawn.
PROBLEM.... The shaft is likely to be very stiff and therefore difficult to withdraw. It was but I did it eventually using my lever extension to move the shaft fore and aft whilst pulling outwards...
Finally when extracted you realise it is a simple stainless steel shaft. It has a nylon bush at the inner and outer ends that inserts into the casting. Between the nylon bushes is a sleeve. A black material. The problem was a build up of black gunge on the shaft making it very stiff in the casting sleeve. I scraped off the gunge and cleaned the shaft and nylon bushes with acetone. I could not shift the black sleeve but cleaned it with an acetone soaked rag. Then I used fine emery on the S/S shaft giving it a good emery polishing.... I did the same with the nylon bushes and attempted the same inside the black sleeve. Then cleaned it all again in acetone, popped it all back together and guess what.... It moves easily just as it should... FANTASTIC!
However now I've got to put it all back together.... I have the whole winter to do it... and if I get stuck I will go to my Honda dealer in Volos with a bag of bits and say could you put this back together and service it for me!
Cheers
Chris
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.