Help! Can't get lower unit in the hole

[dbetterred]

'93 mariner 2.0L 135hp

Motor is in neutral

Pulled the lower unit off for winter (sat in basement for cold weather) did water pump, lube and such.
And now I can't get it to slip back in. It slides in until the drive shaft stops all progress. I just can't get it to do anything more. I'm about an inch and a half away from it being in the correct position. I've tried turning the shaft (by hand and with the prop, in gear). When turning the shaft I can't feel anything grinding (like the splines against each other) so I think I am still short of the shaft even starting to slip into it's correct hole. I've tried with the motor tilted up, down and I would try sideways if I could. No luck.

any ideas?

[cterrebonne]

you need to put the mota in fwd and the l/u in fwd. then as you slide the unit up you are going to rotate the propshaft untill the drive shaft goes into the crankshaft. buy you need to make sure that the water tube and the shift shaft line up what might happen is the shift shaft might seat against the shaft comming out of the l/u you might have to put and plier to that above the lower mid section and wiggle it back and forth untill it slides over each other.

[spareparts]

what he said

[dbetterred]

Thanks. I will try that when I got home from work. Hopefully its not raining!

[cterrebonne]

Originally Posted by dbetterred

Thanks. I will try that when I got home from work. Hopefully its not raining!

just wear a raincoat.

[dbetterred]

Thanks for the help guys!
I got the lower unit mounted last night (only light rain, no rain coat required)


I'm doing some other more significant projects to the boat and I'll post pictures soon.