Reply To: Evinrude 3602E (folding lower unit) lower unit removal.

[Meppsman]

Hello,

Thank you for all the advice! I was actually able to free the power head and get the shaft out of the powerhead by aligning the slot as you suggested. But, I also made a VERY silly mistake in the process. I had a momentary lapse of reason. This might be hard to explain. This happened before I read you message about aligning the roll pin to release it from the powerhead. So, the motor was secured on my boat transom in the vertical (running) position. I had taken the four bolts out that fasten the powerhead and lower unit together. I couldn’t figure out was holding the two together. I kept pulling up on the powerhead but it wouldn’t come free. Without thinking, I flipped the motor “up” (like you would to get the prop out of the water) to look up the lower unit where it folds. When I did this, the powerhead shifted down about an inch or more putting  a lot of lateral force on the driveshaft. The top of the shaft was actually resting on the exhaust housing. I could see the shaft was bending under the weight. I carefully flipped the motor up the the vertical position. When the load was off the shaft, it seems to have returned to its original shape (straight). But I’m worried that there might be a slight bend in the drive shaft now. I actually tried for two days to get the bottom pin out so I could remove the shaft from the housing. No luck though. Been using penetrating oil, heat, a short handle sledge and a punch. Can’t seem to get it out. It’s not budging at all. If I could get it out, I could remove the other two roll pins on the shaft and roll the shaft on a flat surface to see how bad it is bent (if any). I’m thinking now I might leave it “as is” and see what happens when I get it running. Thought on this?

Thank you,

Todd