Re: [OMC-Boats] Tilt Inop!

On Thu, 21 Jul 2011, Doug Wilsman wrote:
> I have just experienced this on my 1970 Explorer. Put on new motor,
> checked out all the wiring and solinoids. Turned out to be the clutch
> pack , out side the boat, where the worm gear turns the gear that
> actually moves the lower unit up and down. Mine had been drained of oil,
> and locked up. I am soaking hoping to break it loose, other wise I'll be
> out for a new clutch pack. If you don't have one, pick up a Seloc
> maintence manual for your boat. Very detailed and helpful info.

Note that if the clutch is locked up, it's "always engaged", so the tilt
motor will always move the drive. If it's slipping, then the motor will
spin freely without the drive turning. The clutch only exists so that the
outdrive will "pop up" if you hit an underwater obstruction - otherwise it
is always engaged. A seized clutch should work just fine, until you hit a
rock and it doesn't slip...

It would only be if the clutch is seized to its housing that the entire
assembly will be frozen and nothing will be able to turn or move. The only
way I've found to do that is to install the cover without the gasket or
shims. Can you remove your clutch from the housing (this requires taking
off the cover and the snap ring on the spur gear)? If you can take it out,
then I don't see how it could be frozen (except to itself).

If there is a problem internal to the clutch, then soaking it may help.
If soaking it doesn't work, you can disassemble the clutch pack and clean
the pieces individually, though it requires access to a press (I actually
got mine apart without a press, but I couldn't figure out an easy way to
get it back together without one). I'm guessing soaking is unlikely to
really get solvent in there and break free the corrosion that is causing
the plates to freeze together.

The downside of disassembling a clutch is that you're supposed to "break
over" a new clutch back by forcing it to slip and spin a few times, but
that isn't possible without modifying the spur gear to hold it with a
wrench (except if you have a newer spur gear with a have wrenching flat on
the end of the shaft). I didn't do this when reassembling mine, so I'm not
sure if the clutch will really break free if I hit an obstruction. I think
it will though - going hard on the throttle in reverse still causes the
drive to pop up. Otherwise new clutch packs are available fairly
reasonably on ebay.

Good luck,

Ethan
Owner of another 1970 Evinrude Explorer 16

-- 
<a href="http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~brodskye/"> Ethan Brodsky </a>