Removing the transmission well at least attempting to.

The mechanic arrived on a 3:30 ferry. I thought this was strange that he would arrive so late. I had told him I would be available anytime from early in the morning. The boatyard workers leave around four or four thirty. So we would not be able to pull the engine off the boat today anyway and he would have to make another trip to pick it up. I thought coming this late would not make sense but, hey he is a mechanic and must have his reasons so I did not say anything. This was mistake one.

By the time we started to work on removing the engine it was after four in the afternoon. The first step was to remove the Hurth V drive transmission. It was held on to the engine by four bolts the top two bolts were removed quite easily. Unfortunately, the bottom two bolts were quite rusted due to twenty years of saltwater dripping down from zinc changes of the heat exchanger. These bolts are out of sight underneath the transmission and of course in a very difficult place to remove them.

The mechanic and I were able to get the one on the left in the photo out. but, the one on the right just would not budge no matter how much force we used. Heating up the area with a mapp gas torch did nothing but create a lot of smoke. Finally I had to get out my dremel tool and the bolt head was cut off. It was after about two hours of work that we were ready to remove the transmission. The only thing we had to do was slide the shaft back past the transmission lift off the transmission and then work on removing the engine. Should be simple right? Not in the world of marine engines. The shaft slid back only a few inches then stopped.

The photo above shows what the problem was. The boat was in the water and the shaft zinc was hitting the strut and preventing us from pushing the shaft back any further. This would have been a simple five minute fix if the mechanic had arrived earlier in the day and we could have had the boatyard put the boat on a lift, removed the zinc and continued to remove the engine. But, since it was seven o'clock at night the yard guys a had gone home and all work on the engine had to stop. Even the transmission had still not been removed. It gets worse.

The mechanic turns to me and says I need to get three hundred and fifty dollars from you. I say for what? Well, I really worked hard in trying to get this transmission off he says. But, I say part of the deal was you were supposed to help me remove the engine. He just shrugged. So much for deals. So work stops and I have laid out another three hundred and fifty dollars and the engine is still in the boat. Such is the life of a sailor.

NEXT: If you want something done....