Re: Firestone 7.5 & 10hp outboards

[jeff-register]

Lotec,
First, Thank you for the reply. My first outboard over thirty years ago was a 1953 Firestone 7.5HP. I had no idea how to performan service although I had many hours on other mechanical devices such as the Chevy Corvair & many others. It flooded, jumped out of gear & overheated.
I was pleased beyond belief, a challange for sure!!
Lets see where did I start? Oh yes it leaked more oil than it held.
I will start with the gearcase, That took several tries. The Driveshaft needed filled with brass & polished, the stainless impeller housing was groovey & replaced along with impeller. The stainless housing required heat to loosen from the aluminum casting, but no installation of seals yet! I had a friend double machine the case so I had one seal up & the other down to keep water out & oil in. Then came the aluminum pipe that I pulled from the aluminum casting to discover an old dried out 0-ring for a seal that forgot how to seal moons ago. I replaced the o-ring & aluminum pipe & before I installed the shift rod I cut a 6" piece of blood pressure cuff tubing. This tubing has less density & will fit over the shift rod (aluminum tubing) & the shift rod itself. This made a very nice flexable tubing shift shaft sealing tube. Now for the nice gears & shafts! That took a few parts motors to find a set. Next came the front cover leaking. I cut my own good gasket material & used a small straight edge across the gasket face machining & found them to be pulled up where the threads were. Filed them flat again. I cut the gasket to fit & left it oversize on the outside edge. I replaced the hardware with Allen head capped finish hardware & outside star washers & S.A.E. flat washers & very small o-rings for sealing. The prop shaft needle nose bearings needed replaced the prop shaft prop end bearing as well1 To finish it off a new bearing & seal too. I held it in place & put it all together.
There is more I did to the throttle & magneto but I was tired!!
Jeff