TOPIC: Long shaft or short shaft- which one is right?

Hello all!

When we picked up the 'Bomber, it came with a Sea King 40 HP short shaft engine on the boat (see avatar pic) and another 40 HP Sea King that is long shaft.

The short shaft engine is froze up, the long shaft engine is free.

Can I swap to the long shaft engine until I can afford to fix (rebuild) the short one? I am not familar with the difference in performance, so school me please! Will it affect how it gets on plane, speed, etc? Or just the depth of the water the boat can navigate?

Thanks!

Jay

Bluegill_Bomber,

The length of foot on an outboard is determined by the height of the transom.
It's NOT difficult to change a long-foot OMC Big-Twin to a short-foot. = EASY directions are in CHEAP OUTBOARDS: THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO MAKING AN OLD MOTOR RUN FOREVER. - Copies of that GOOD book are commonly available at larger public libraries and/or used at places like amazon.com.
(I paid 5 bucks plus 3.99 S&H for mine there & have become one of Max's apostles.)

Fyi, you need NOT be a mechanic to work on your own Big Twin, as they are about the least complicated OB around & if it was a complex thing to accomplish, I couldn't do it.

yours, satx

Jay you could throw the long shaft on there if you just need to idle around, but the extra 15" sticking down in the water = LOTS of extra drag - very poor performance.

Not sure about swapping the powerheads, but as SATX says they're pretty easy to work on! The gang here is always glad to help if you need a hand, but the book is extremely helpful with issues such as this.

Good luck and keep us posted, with pics of course!

If you have 2 OMC Sea King 40hp motors you already have everything you need to do the swap it is incredibly easy. If you take them both apart it will become apparent really quickly how things will go back together as needed. Have fun with it!

Like AL Said, should all be there. Look at them together, there is a 5" insert to make it a long shaft. Take the lower unit off the short shaft, and as mentioned, you'll immediately see the what is going on. Bottom line, take the lower half of the short shaft off, including he water tube, do the same with the long shaft, take off the intermediate piece on long shaft, and then transfer them over. Should take less than a cpl hours. Both motors have a little access point on the side (cover with 2 screws normally) that you need to access the shift shaft.

Get a book, or prob. something on utube. It is REALLY simple.

Interesting. I had a response that was here, and even satx replied to that... but now it's gone.

I didn't ever think of just swapping drive units. Duh! Sometimes the obvious answer eludes us!

Thank you for everyone who offered advice. Once it's consistently warm and not wet (I'll be working outside), I'll do the swap with pictures. Maybe set it up as a 'how to' article.

Jay

Bluegill_Bomber,

Fyi, SEVERAL of my posts to several topics have "mysteriously disappeared" form the site since yesterday.

In any event, you can make a long-foot out of a short-foot easily & vice-versa. - As I said, if it was hard, I couldn't do it as I'm FAR from being a mechanic or even "mechanically inclined".

yours, satx

[Shameless plug]
You also can hunt up your local chapter of the AOMCI and take your motors to a meet. The guys will tell/show you how to do it and might even do it right there.
[end shameless plug]

Well, it looks like the problem is solved... With very little work on my part!

I pulled the cover off and tried to give the recoil start a tug. Stuck. I then grabbed the ring gear and tried spinning it.

FREE!

I turned the motor a couple turns by hand, lo and behold the recoil freed up too!

Now that I know it's free, I'll rebuild the carb and replace the rubber parts, maybe fire her up next weekend!

Thank you to everyone who offered advice! The club idea is a good one, I'll look into a local chapter.

Thanks!

Jay

Glad to hear it wasn't badly stuck, while you're doing the carb check/change the coils, plug wires and plugs.
Al

I'm thinking twins!! Short shaft stuff should be easy to get!! Probably do a trade with someone here or at AOMC. Gale 40hp stuff should work. Of course, always good to have a spare motor, but.....