Home › Forum › Ask A Member › Mercury 9.8 drive shaft issues › Re: Mercury 9.8 drive shaft issues
Well, the way I see it, your motor has a part # of 45-75034A1. serial 7049108 and up has a drive shaft 45-75034…..WITHOUT the A1. I checked supercessions on Mercnet and they don’t cross with each other. Even I can’t believe the head ache that this part generates in a parts search; but it’s a prime example of how you have to be careful. I am not saying the two definitely will NOT interchange. Sometimes the "A1" means a kit; so the drive shaft 75034 MIGHT just be part of the A1 kit. With such similar numbers, I would speculate that this is fairly likely, but not a guarantee.
As a side light, the "45" is what Mercury calls a "class number." It means a shaft of some kind. "27" would be gasket, "10" is a bolt, screw or the like. "47 is an impeller, and so on. Mercury doesn’t really care about class number. It is for the dealers’ and customer’s convenience. For instance, They would call your 9.8 impeller simply a 89981, not a "47-"89981. And there would be no such part as a 10-89981. That’s probably why some sites list your drive shaft with a "45" and some don’t.
Long live American manufacturing!