Reply To: Length of driveshaft. 1958 Evinrude 10 horsepower.

[William Jatzek]

Don wrote:

Be careful.  Attempting to pull the driveshaft out might get the driveshaft key jammed/dislodged/fall inside the gearcase.  Then you will have to disassemble the gearcase to find the key and reassemble.

OK, so someone added a 5″ extension to this unit, correct?  The color of the gearcase matches the engine perfectly?  Chances are good it is the original gearcase and has the keyed driveshaft.

Now, I have forgotten why you are asking about the dimension of the driveshaft to begin with, will have to reread the post.

Just as an aside though, will relate a mistake I made in this area.  Pulled apart a newer 10hp gearcase with splined pinion, gear housing and driveshaft were shot.  Found another gear housing but had to hunt up another driveshaft.   Scoured my dealer buddy’s driveshaft collection and was thrilled to find another good driveshaft, or so I thought.   Assembled everything, but the driveshaft was not spinning when I pulled the recoil.    “What could I have done wrong”?  I pulled the powerhead and the driveshaft was definitely too short, not engaging the crank splines.   Turns out the driveshaft I had found was for a long shaft 9.5hp!

Hello Fleetwin. I am removing the 5” extension that makes a motor fit a 20 inch transom and returning it to a 15” transom motor. I have some AOMCI friends I am going to see in the next few days. I was looking for a driveshaft length so i could have them look at some of their extra  parts on the chance they may have had one. With all the variables with these lower units I am going to remove the long driveshaft that is in motor and lower unit see what the ends look like and knock off 5” in length so I know exactly what I need. We only had 1 meet scheduled for this year left and probably will not see a lot of these guys till next year. It was just a quick gamble to pick one up but I am going to have to dissaemble everything to get my answer. Also I am planning to reseal lower unit anyway.