Re: [OMC-Boats] Tilt not working on 1967 Sportsman 120

On Tue, 11 Aug 2009, Nexi wrote:
> I want to pull just the motor out. I looked at the connections from the
> crimp straight into the motor and one of the sides is heavily rusted and
> corroded. I'm wondering if perhaps the wires corroded together inside the
> motor?

It shouldn't be hard to get it out on your boat. The clearances are
horrible on the V-6s, but the I-4 (at least from your photo) appears to
have good access to all the bolts. Just remove the two long thru-bolts
going and then slide it out. Be aware that:

1. There is a gasket between the motor and the intermediate housing that is
easily lost

2. There is a "hammer-blow" coupling which consists of two metal pieces and
a spring. It slides onto the end of the motor shaft and then onto the "tilt
shaft" inside the intermediate housing. When you remove the motor, one
piece of the coupling likes to stay with the motor, so you stretch the
spring until the assembly shoots out of the intermediate housing and all
the pieces fall down into the bilge, where they're difficult to find. If
you do lose them, be sure to check in the metal curve under the
intermediate housing where it passes into the transom. Don't say I didn't
warn you!

3. There are two thin plastic washers that go on either side of the
hammer-blow coupling. I assume they exist to prevent it all from corroding
together and to take up some slop in the system. Don't lose them.

4. The internals of the motor are held in place by the intermediate
housing, so they can fall out when you remove it. Be sure to put a finger
over the end of the motor as you pull it out, and be careful when "tipping
it" in the direction that'll "dump all the parts out". It's pretty much
inevitable that you'll have to reset the brushes (I flick them into place
with a small screw-driver, I haven't tried the dental floss trick), but
it's better if you can avoid dropping all the pieces in the bilge.

5. New motors can be had for ~$100 - I picked mine up at a local auto
electrical shop (Finicki Auto Electric in Madison WI), but they're also
available online. I even saw one on ebay go for $30 a couple years ago.

6. To see if the wires are corroded together inside the motor, just put an
ohmeter on them and measure the resistance between them. It should fairly
high - I would think it would be twice the resistance you see between
either one and ground.

Good luck,

Ethan Brodsky
Received on Tuesday, 11 August 2009