Re: More Mercury 110 questions

[20mercman]

You are correct that the pinion needs to come out. Place the drive shaft in a vice, and bend the lock tab away from the bolt and remove the bolt that attaches the pinion to the drive shaft. Then with the drive shaft held in a vice, use a wood block or dead blow hammer to drive the lower unit housing off of the drive shaft. (of course, the water pump assembly needs to be out at this time) The pinion gear will fall off of the drive shaft and into the housing. Then place a scrap piece of board, 2" x 4" etc. on your work bench, and strike the lower unit open end first onto the board being careful to try to hit is as square as possible. This shock will drive the forward gear and bearing out of the lower unit. Sometimes they can be really stuck, then heating the housing with a propane torch can be enough heat to loosen the gear assembly, but they almost always come out fairly easily. There will be shims behind the bearing, so be sure to catch them and replace them when putting in new bearings. For reinstallations, I use the prop shaft and again use a dead blow hammer to drive onto the prop shaft to guide the assembly into place. They really do move fairly easily.

Steve