1956 Evinrude Lark 30 HP Tear down

Ok.. let's try again.

First problem is that your bolts are too short. Notice the photos I just posted.. they are only screwed in a few threads. You need to go back to the long gold bolts that you started with. The bolts need to screw into the flywheel the width of your index finger.

Your puller is upside down. Probably as a way to try to use the short bolts? Flip the gold part over. You're not getting a strong pull because the bolts are bending on the curved surface.. you need the bolts to pull perfectly straight up. Re rig the puller as I described and send us a photo.

The puller was rigged correctly in this photo. bolts screwed in well... straight surface up...

Do I still need to tap new threads in that stripped out hole? There are still a few undamaged threads at the bottom of the hole but I don’t know if it’s enough to hold the pressure. Right now the holes are 1/4”x20 but I have a 5/16”x18 tap and matching bolt if I need it.

Piomarine,
Pappy is right.. let's do this one time and get er done. Tapping a new hole should take you about 15 minutes.

Ok so tapping a hole... read something or watch a youtube video on it.. there's a right way and about a thousand wrong ways.

You'll need a 17/64" drill bit to drill out the hole and get it ready to tap. NO Substititutes for that...

mark your drill and your tap about 3/4" up from the tip... that's all the deeper you want to go.

Have a shop vac there and vacuum up all the chips so you don't dump them all on the mag plate.

Once the hole is tapped find a high quality grade 6 or 8 5/16" bolt that is exactly the same length as your gold bolts..

The bolts must all be screwed in exactly the same amount. about 3/4". So the puller is nice and square to the flywheel.

Once you have all that done and the puller is mounted nice and square, take that impact gun and gently give it short bursts...brrrp...brrrp...brrrp... and just keep doing that until she pops....

Shaugh said:

Piomarine,
Pappy is right.. let's do this one time and get er done. Tapping a new hole should take you about 15 minutes.

Ok so tapping a hole... read something or watch a youtube video on it.. there's a right way and about a thousand wrong ways.

You'll need a 17/64" drill bit to drill out the hole and get it ready to tap. NO Substititutes for that...

mark your drill and your tap about 3/4" up from the tip... that's all the deeper you want to go.

Have a shop vac there and vacuum up all the chips so you don't dump them all on the mag plate.

Once the hole is tapped find a high quality grade 6 or 8 5/16" bolt that is exactly the same length as your gold bolts..

The bolts must all be screwed in exactly the same amount. about 3/4". So the puller is nice and square to the flywheel.

Once you have all that done and the puller is mounted nice and square, take that impact gun and gently give it short bursts...brrrp...brrrp...brrrp... and just keep doing that until she pops....

Click to expand...

As to the part in bold, for the drill, yes.

For the tap, it depends on the type of tap used. A start tap will only just start cutting a full thread about 1/2" up the tool so going in only 3/4" isn't going to give a full depth thread.

He would need a start and arguably a plug and or a bottom tap. The bottom can be used in place of the plug, thereby skipping the plug step as a cheat if the cost of taps or availability is an issue. using these steps with the taps marked at 3/4" should give a good result.

My point was about the drill bit grabbing at the end and feeding into the plate and maybe those points or coils. New coils will not stand a drill bit any better than old coils. If ya can stop short and use a bottom tap to finish all the better. I use a drill stop if using a hand drill or set the drill press at the right depth. If the wheel has blind holes all the better.

...have one hold the wheel up so the crankshaft is not resting on the thrust surface below before shocking the assembly.

Hello again piomarine.

It was suggested that you try a 3 jaw puller.
While this May work on smaller flywheels, using a 3 jaw or other edge puller is likely to distort or outright ruin this flywheel. Especially if it already has any fatigue cracking around those holes. The flywheel is actually fairly thin near the hub and will give with that type of puller.
Do not risk it.
Drilling and tapping the bad threads to 5/16 is the way to go and others have already posted good procedures.

I second the heat suggestion.
Get the puller good and tight before you put the heat to it.
Maybe start light, so you can still touch it but not for long and then leave it overnight.

When you do finally get it off, flip it over check it for crackS around the 3 small threaded holes and the little points adjustment window. If you find any you should replace it.

Sinkingfast said:

My point was about the drill bit grabbing at the end and feeding into the plate and maybe those points or coils. New coils will not stand a drill bit any better than old coils. If ya can stop short and use a bottom tap to finish all the better. I use a drill stop if using a hand drill or set the drill press at the right depth. If the wheel has blind holes all the better.

...have one hold the wheel up so the crankshaft is not resting on the thrust surface below before shocking the assembly.

Click to expand...

You are absolutely correct about the drill grabbing upon breakout/through.

I was having a drink last night thinking about this and realized I should have mentioned a drill collar/stop rather than tape.

Tape is only an indicator, a stop is a stop.

The flywheel looks to me to be substantial enough to use a large 3 jaw, but then again Im only looking at a picture and have never had one in my hand.

A picture in this case is not worth a thousand words, but I have never damaged a flywheel using my 3 jaw.

.02c :wink:

I have used a 3 jaw in the past on wheels with no puller holes myself. My concern is that ring gear attached to the wheel.

For my standup ski with little room to work I made a plate with 3 holes matching the wheels puller holes. Screw the wheels nut on the crank. Install the plate with the 3 bolts so the plate is resting on the crank stub/nut. Start backing off the nut against the plate. Works every time..

When the wheel is finally off I usually tap the remaining holes so they all match. I then take the puller bolts that fit that motor..tape them together and mark them as to what they are for.

My neighbor tore off the wheel from the hub on a briggs using a 3 jaw. He was very old school and made a repair plate and used screws through the repair plate, hub and wheel for a fix....back about 1971 or so. Used his mower for many years before his death at 96....no the mower's flywheel did not kill him!

This is what is left of the flywheel from a 1956 johnson 30 that a previous owner tried to remove with a 3 jaw puller. You can see how thin the metal is where the ratchet screws go. This flywheel may have already had fatigue cracks but there is no way to know.
I removed this from the powerhead without further damage but it was difficult and then a new flywheel was needed.

It’s been a minute but I was back at it this afternoon. I got the 17/64 hole drilled and tapped for a 5/16 bolt. I got 4” grade 8 bolts and re-ran the puller. It out it under load and let it sit for a few hours. I came back and put a little more pressure on it and let it sit. Came back a few hours later and, with help, put a heat gun to it while hitting it with the electric impact gun. Still no movement. I put some more penetrating oil on it and more heat to work it down. I am now letting it sit for the night still under tension. I don’t really know what else to do other than just give it time. I don’t really want to put the bolts under any more pressure, I’m afraid of stripping out another hole.

Leaving it sit under tension I don’t buying you anything.

It is a mechanical locking taper and will require an amount of force to move just like a press fit would.

Your puller looks perfect. you're there... just got to make it happen. Get it really tight and try smacking the top of the big threaded rod with a hammer... With a properly installed tool and correct method it can't fail... Trust the OMC engineers that made it so.

You might want to put a torque wrench on it & let us know how tight you are getting it. Mine took quite a bit of torque. You will need a torque wrench to tighten it back up anyway.

SUCCESS!!! It took putting a breaker bar on the bolt and bracing my leg on the upright of the motor stand and then BANG!!! It’s sounded like a dang gunshot when it popped...scared the crap out of me!

In other news...now that the flywheel is off I have gotten a look at the ignition system...not good! It will need a full replacement (as I expected).

As long as you are that deep, you might consider replacing the top crankshaft seal.

CedarRiverScooter said:

As long as you are that deep, you might consider replacing the top crankshaft seal.

Click to expand...

If I were doing a resto I would just go through the whole motor.

No sense doing a bunch of work just to be disappointed in the near future.

A resto is what I am looking at...it will need it to run well in the future. Priority number one is getting it freed up though so I am pulling the powerhead.

Nice work. Don't forget the cleaning. As you take things off clean them with gasoline. Get a big 5 gallon can with a gallon of gas in it... dump parts in like that magneto plate and use a paint brush to wash off all that grime... then lay out in the sun for an hour... you won't even smell the gas in an hour and it will strip all that black crap off everything.

Did you seperate the lower unit yet ? What is most likely frozen and locking the head from turning is a frozen lower unit.

Hard to believe that powerhead is so stuck that you could put that kind of torque on the flywheel nut. If it is you probably want to leave it mounted till you break it loose.. once it's off you will have a hard time hanging on to it.

To break it loose there are several tried and true methods. But not until the lower unit is seperated. One is to just take the head off and bang the piston tops with a 2x2 and a hammer... you need to free them up and get them moving.. once you do that they will likely be perfectly usable. After an hour of running they will have re honed themselves almost back to new.... you just need to get there.... tearing apart the head is probably not needed.