Can the O-ring on the steering nozzle be replaced without tearing everything down ?

Thanks !!

Don

All I can find around here at the marinas is 87 octane 10% alki.

I have a 88 Chevy small block 350 with a Mallory Marine dual point distributor.

Where should I set the timing for this crap gas ?

Don

This is a 1988 Marlin 188 ski boat with walk-through windshield that I bought new in 1988.
It's a small block Chevy turning around 4400 on an "A" aluminum impeller.

My son and his friends all learned to deep-water barefoot behind this boat.
( I didn't want to turn a bunch of teenagers loose with an exposed prop )
Its been in fresh water ( Tennessee River )  three to four months each year, and always stored indoors
during our "off-seasons".

I'm going to pass it along to my grandsons ( 13 and 10 ) who are wanting to learn to ski.

I wanted to make sure that the  u-joints in the drive shaft were OK, and  especially the thrust bearing.

( 1 )
Taking off the impeller nut ............... Good Grief !!!   I had to borrow a 3/4 breaker bar and a long pipe
to finally break that nut loose. 70 foot pounds ?    I'm thinking more like 300-350 foot pounds to break it loose.

( 2 )
Now to the impeller.   I had the proper Berkeley Hub Puller and I'll say that without that specialty puller,
I would have chewed up the impeller.    The impeller fought me the whole way.  It was as hard pulling the last quarter inch as the first.  This thing was  ATTACHED to the shaft.

( 3 )
After removing the four Allen bolts that holds the thrust bearing,  The shaft was then tapped forward ....   
350 Chevy lifted around 12 inches with chain hoist and secured with additional heavy duty straps.       
Steel joists overhead in garage.

( 4 )  Thrust bearing looks and feels great .  I was worried about water intrusion, but I must have lubed it once or twice in 25 years. It was coated really well with Moly EP and shows no rust on any surface. The bearing cavity
on either side of the bearing was full of grease and no water.

( 5 ) 
U-joints in the drive line     Again, everything looks and feels so smooth that I'm not going to try to pull the drive-line from the crankshaft .... Maybe if I had a cut-down 3/8 Allen wrench that would allow good contact with the allens.... but the u-joints interfere.       A cut down "L-shaped" Allen would fit, but I don't think its worth it here.    The Harden Marine bell housing has an inspection port suitable for hitting the zerks with lube.

( 6 )
Wear Ring and Impeller wear... nothing noted visually or with feeler gage.     The area on the impeller that is closest to the wear ring still has zinc chromate paint coating.

The only area of the impeller that has lost paint is in the centers of each blade on the suction side.   There are a few dings on the leading edge of the blades, but small enough to either leave or dress.   I may smooth them up
a bit with a small file.

I have spent several days on and off on the project, and I will order new ropes and seals and O-rings and nylon sleeves for the steering....     Maybe a nice new Place Diverter next year    And Aluminum heads  ...

Rent or buy the tools from Berk .    They were worth the added expense.

DonR