TOPIC: Tough tilt on Merc 850....

I just put a new to me 1977 Merc 850 on my Glasspar. The motor is running great, but the thing is a real bear to tilt!

It is a manual tilt. I greased the piss out of the tilt/steering tube, and that helped a lot (I can now rotate the tube when I loosen the nuts a bit), so I know that's not the problem. It seems that the shock absorbers are making it tough- When I do lift the motor up, It stays in place on the shock absorbers alone, even without the trailering 'clip' down... Is there anything else I can do to loosen it up a bit?? I can BARELY lift the motor to tilt it!

-Andrew

unbolt the shocks and if she lifts well contact me I have NOS shocks ....for just the cost of shipping

MadProps wrote:

unbolt one end of the shocks and if she lifts well:

Now why didn't I think of that??

I'll give it a shot tonight, once the temps get below the mid- 100's out there... Its MISERABLE!

-Andrew

they tend to freeze on the top pin. just clean and grease and reinstall yours.

That's EXACTLY what happened. This one is frozen- HARD- on the top pin, only on the left side-



It's ON there, too... I messed with it for quite a while, but nothing....

The reason the motor was so tough to lift was the whole pin was rotating, not the shock absorber.

The pin is mushroomed a bit on the end, too- Looks like someone tried to get it off before me.

I think I'm going to have to cut it off, then install a new shock absorber. I don't think that I'm going to be able to free it from the pin without breaking something!

-Andrew

peel it off the bottom first then heat the top and use the shock extended to leverage it works every time for me.

I tried that a bit- but the whole pin rotates along with the cylinder- I even slipped a piece of 2" PVC pipe over the cylinder to use as a "cheater bar", but the shaft just kept turning. I think I'll need to cut the cylinder off- looks to be aluminum, it shouldn't be TOO hard

hold the shaft with vice grips.