SAME Mercury 85 oil leak in the bell housing

[mark in portugal]

the inner Oring is 5mm and the cover needs to be pressed against it with some force before the big circlip can go back. So I made the press bar from 30x30 stock I found in the workshop.
I made a test fit first, then pressed it in with the extra Oring.
The local bearing shop didn't have a big enough Circlip tool, so I bought needle nose vise grips and ground the tips down.

throwout bearing collar reinstalled with new seals, 2 of the 4 diabolical bearing return springs are on there too.

Bell housing hanging from the hoist for reinstallation.

I managed to reinstall all 4 diabolical return springs in just 1-1/2 hours. only one can be partially seen.

I should have the rear main engine seal tomorrow, so I can get it all back together.

 

[ptsg]

Excellent work Mark! That beast will be running in no time!

Those springs do look like a lot of fun indeed in that little tight area. Great job holding that thing plate on the lathe to cut the groove.

 

[mark in portugal]

I imagine that at the factory, they hired a contortionist from the Chinese circus to install those springs.
Paid per job most likely.
Engine seal didn't get to the shop yet, maybe tomorrow; anyway, there is plenty to do.
I should check the valve clearance and retorque the heads.
Not in that order, obviously.

 

[mark in portugal]

The rear engine seal finally turned up, so work could continue.
There's a pretty bad groove worn into the crankshaft journal, so I set the new seal on the outer edge of the housing, about 3mm out from the seat, so the new seal rides on undamaged metal.

I made an alignment tool for this tractor 6 years ago; I think I used the metal for something else. Anyway, it's quicker to make a new one than to find the old one.

The double clutch assembly is a bit heavy to lift be hand; and why should I when I put all that work into putting in the gantry hoist?

2 of the clutch bolts are stretched; can you see it? I felt it continue to stretch when torquing, so pulled them out and replaced them.

To get the halves in alignment, I needed to steer; that was done with a ratchet strap.

slowly coming together again. This is actually fairly tricky. 2 spline shafts, lots of linkages and tubes to worry about, and getting it all lined up.

A little twist on the PTO shaft to get the PTO spline into its clutch plate.

The tractor is one piece again, but there's still a lot of reconnecting to do

 

[mark in portugal]

All reassembled; while checking the hydraulics, I found a leaky hose.
This tractor has 10 hydraulic hoses that are all the same (after my modifications), so I have a few spares in stock.

And ready to work; I have some tractoring work pending by now.

 

[ptsg]

And ready to work. Great job on the repairs Mark.

 

[mark in portugal]

Thanks; I don't know how many hours and Euros I've put into the old beast, but it's done a lot of work for me in return.
It's only economically viable because I can do the repairs at home myself. Even at Portuguese wages, if I had to pay every time it broke, I'd be broke too!

It's it pretty good shape now, so hopefully it will go for a long time without any more major work needed...
Hopefully.

 

[mark in portugal]