TOPIC: Mercury Mark 55A teardown

OK, I have given up trying to get the motor to budge - I have decided to take it all apart and see what the problem is. If it turns out that the cylinders are rusted do you think honing and new rings will do the trick? If the damage is worse than that is it possible to bore these out?
I have an on line manual which is fairly descriptive but is there a better workshop manual for this job?
finally, any suggestions as to where to get good gasket kits for these motors? If anyone here has done this job would really appreciate some advice - I will post a series of pictures of the work done.
Thank you
Lee

if the cyl are bad get a used powerhead much cheaper than boring it out. oldmercs.com should have the gaskets.any mark 55 55a 58 58a 400 450 500 will work. so many are out there.

Thank you - what are your thoughts on this site to download pdf of manual for the motor?

oops sorry mercury-vintage.marineservicemanuals.com/Kiekhaefer-Mercury-Mark-55A-Super-Thunderbolt-Service-Manual.html

Lee

If you are going to do a lot of old mercs get a copy of there pre64 maintenance manual well worth it.

It is coming free - I put two wooden hammer shafts under each end of the crank and started levering down one end is coming up - the two middle are free - the top end is still stuck but I think it may come free now.
I have decided to take the crank and pistons out - I was thinking that if I try to force the pistons up and down particularly as there is crud/dirt/grit in the top and bottom cylinder it would just score the walls of the cylinder. Once I get it out I can clean the cylinder walls, check the rings and re-assemble - would like any advice at this point before removing crank as to how to proceed so I can get it back together again in one piece.

Lee