Honda 8 Swivel Case

I need advice from anyone familiar with swivel case removal/replacement on a late 2005 HONDA 8 BAAJ outboard. The swivel case was fractured right through when customers of the last owner (hire service) backed the engine into a wharf. I bought the unit at a very good price and with only 40 hours total use, it is certainly worth fixing

The shop manual has been downloaded. good parts drawings/ part numbers found and the springs, tilt lever, arm, bushes etc have been removed. That was the good news.

The bad news is I cannot remove the 2 bolts holding the tiller arm to the swivel - they are so tight I'm afraid of breaking them off inside the housing. The second problem is undoing the lock nut/sleeve nut at the bottom of the shift rod. The gear lever seems not to fully engage reverse and that might cause lack of clearance OR do I need to undo the main drive shaft too? The manual implies the engine itself has to be removed but from the drawings, this seems an excessive amount of work

If the entire swivel case can be removed, aligning the bits and welding it is one option - another is to replace the part for a bit over $A150 (plus new bushes, pins etc.

Any advice from someone who has stripped/repaired one of these units would be very much appreciated

 

A 10-year old hire boat engine with 40 hours use seems unlikely, is there some kind of electronic miodule on it that tells you that ? otherwise hard to believe. If you manage to disassemble it, I would not depend on welding that, odds are it will be much weaker than the original.

 

If you can replace the part for 150.... plus a few other bits sounds like the go, I remember a case about 15-20 years ago that gave an engineering firm nearby a massive headache, from memory they or another party had rewelded an outboard part... at a later date someone was hurt by that outboard & apparently unrelated to the weld but a legal case was brought up on the scattergun approach with anyone that looked sideways at the outboard....... I think the injury was a prop strike!
Jeff

 

I agree replacing the component is better than welding for the reasons you state. The problem remains of removing it.

My original question remains - how to remove the swivel case - see earlier post

 

Well, I try not to delve into outboard mechanishian areas, a specialist area, they seem fond of applying heat to bolts from what I hear, maybe they chill them too. I've recently had to pull down a torpedo of some age with some access difficulties, had to partially manufacture some custom offest T spanners.... one set of 8 engine mount bolts the spanner only lasted a bit over half of them, some good response came from incorperating a striking face to the top of the T... seems to relieve the threads some, but a team effort, the T spanners give an even rotational force kind of like a wheel brace . Pretty much welding sockets to end of round bar & some more to form the T & striking face.
Maybe those bolts have some kind of locktight applied?
Surely if the buy price was right you're into it with a certain expectation of risk, just have a go... what could possibly go wrong?

All the best from Jeff

 

Yeh, give the heads a solid tap with a hammer if you get access, usually helps, and as Jeff says, heat is helpful. But sometimes they just shear anyway. But usually only on old motors pickled in salt.

 

Yes I think you are right. Rubber torsion axles are made the same way by freezing the rubber prior to assembly so when it returns to ambient temperature, it is locked in so tight that our mate upstairs couldn't get it out. Honda have probably done the same thing with these bolts.

As suggested, I have clobbered the bolt heads to try to get then started, They move all of about 1/16 of a turn after that, but no more.

You are right about the price and expectations so the option might be to drill out the bolts, then tap the holes and use new 10 mm stainless bolts and a galvanic protection agent. I had already considered this but it would be a last resort.

This does not solve the issue of the shift rod at the bottom, because even when undone there is no guarantee the case will slide off though there is nothing in the workshop manual to indicate anything to stop it. I'm still hoping someone on the forum has removed the leg on a similar Honda and could answer this part

 

The 1/6 of a turn is the bolts twisting. They are ready to snap now you have done that. What you should do is heat and cool the bolts a few times and give them a squirt of hurths dry ice just before you try to turn them again . You should get them out with this method. There is no fancy engineering, its just corrosion around the thread and you have to crack the corrosion with expansion and contraction so it lets the bolt go.

 

HONDA 8 swivel case replacement

OK here is an update - discovered that it may not be necessary to remove those two locked-in bolts IF the swivel disconnects - see pictures.

Unresolved questions:

1 Does the top swivel side apart?
2. Why will the shift rod not undo completely? Do I need to remove the gearbox?

Any help appreciated

Alan

 

So, will you be taking delivery of any more used outboards ? They are renowned for causing grief to the unwary.

 

Is this your idea of a useful response?

Maybe you should see virtually any post on any topic from the consistently helpful members

 

You will find it useful if you take it to heart, by and large people only get rid of outboard motors as single items, as opposed to attached to boats, when they have become more trouble than they are worth, and/or are not worth fixing up. It's a rarity for a good second hand engine to be obtainable. It's about as rare as a boat getting smashed up badly, to the point of beyond repair, but the engine somehow escapes unscathed. Then there may be a good engine available. Otherwise, you are just taking someone else's trouble off their hands.