Logo
FULL SITE MENU

Foord 302 lower rebuild

N

Neal Franson

Regular Contributor
I haven't gotten my outdrive back on yet but started puttering around with the second lower that lost forward gear, like the other lower (before and after my rebuild) and I had found that the shift cable had broken just above the swivel housing. It looks like it was spliced there by the previous owner. I cleaned it up so I could see both wires and put a battery to the cables with the negative grounded to the housing. I got a spark on both wires but expected to hear the clunk of it going into gear, but there was no clunk in either. I was hoping to get a clunk on both and not have to open up the lower and just replace the cable.

Should it clunk, or not?? Maybe not without the engine running and putting some amount of torque on the drive. Anybody?
 
No clunk.

Spark is normal as you connect the wire. And of course you are only connecting 12 volts positive to 1 of the 2 wires at any given time.

Prop shaft will spin free in neutral. In other words without 12v applied.

Prop shaft locks 1 way in fwd & if I recall will have some drag but turn the opposite direction.

Reverse will operate the opposite of forward.
 
You'll have to remove the swivel fitting to get to the knife connectors/replace the cable. Or at least I think so.
 
Yes, the swivel housing needs to be removed to get to the knife connectors and I will get a new $200 cable when I get the money.
So, the test is to spin the prop shaft with no electrical and it should spin free and not turn the crankshaft. Then try one wire activated with 12 volts and I should get some traction on the forward or reverse. Detach the 12 volts and it should spin freely again. Then attach to the other wire and the shaft should get traction in the other direction. I believe the drive shaft should spin clockwise in forward gear turning the prop shaft clockwise.
 
Yes but you can do it on the bench with the lower off the upper...
Basically, one way will turn the vertical shaft & the other direction you can hold the vertical shaft from turning. (Because of the above mentioned drag, it may turn at least some without holding it).

Or with the upper unit assembled to lower, then hold the ball gear instead. This way there is more resistance from the gears/bearings & the impeller so it probably won't turn from just drag.
 
Last edited:
The reverse seems to work just fine, but the forward sticks hard and sort of springs a little either way I try to turn it, so it seems like a broken clutch spring would do that, so it looks like I have to open it up. It does turn freely without the juice
I will probably just put it on a shelf for now and get my boat running.
 
Back to my boat: I got the re-built outdrive back on today and the engine started right up - sounds great! And I have reverse AND forward drive working! I still have a few things to fix up but should be ready for sea trials in a couple weeks with the new 14 pitch prop installed! Hopefully the lower pitch propeller will ease the torque on the transmission (the lower) from my souped-up engine, and I won't have a fourth lower with a broken clutch spring limping back to the dock in reverse with no forward drive.
 
Not the happily ever after report that I had hoped for...
I took my boat out to the ocean yesterday and started out slowly building rpm and got to 2500 rpm and I lost forward gear - like it slipped into neutral and engine revved up. I reduced to 600 rpm and checked reverse, and no reverse either. I again tried forward and nothing. I messed around with the shifter and got nothing, so I called for a tow.
So, this is the first time that I lost both forward and reverse, so it is probably not the clutch spring, but something that serves both, like the Pinion gear- the nut on the bottom of the vertical drive shaft that holds it on may have come loose. It was a new nut with factory thread lock, and I did give it about 80 pounds of torque. I'll let you know when I open it up.
Today I checked the wiring of the electric drive, and it has 12+ volts to the outdrive forward and reverse from the shifter, so not being just an electrical problem, I started the process of taking off the outdrive by unloosening the oil drain cap in the lower. To my surprise the oil squirted out like a garden hose under pressure. I never experienced that before. It had been a day since I had the engine running and everything was cold. Is this normal? Does it indicate any problem? At least I know the seals are good.
 
Water pump splines worn off?

Highly unlikely it's electrical issue unless the ground circuit (remember the spring under the cap?) is bad.

Before you tear the drive apart:
Was the oil that squirt out clean? Water contaminated? Metal shavings in the oil?
 
I did open up the lower - I'm getting pretty good at it.
The driveshaft is broken in two!! I haven't been able to get it out yet, but if you twist the top around, the pinion gear doesn't go around. I got the pinion nut off - it may not have been fully tightened, even though I torqued it heavily, as perhaps the threads were a bit longer and the factory thread lock, which is really a piece of plastic fastened to the nut caused friction and it didn't tighten all the way down causing vibration.
The driveshaft is stuck in there somehow in two pieces. It should just pull out with the nut off, but something is locking it in. I had been trying to bang it out without messing up the housing. I can mess up the remnants of the drive shaft, as of course it is not salvageable.
The driveshaft is hard to find, I found one on eBay before, but it was the only one. I may just use my second lower for parts and get it from there.
There were some metal filings in the oil, and I did find one piece of metal that I think is part of the driveshaft - looked like part of the edge of the bearing race and maybe there are other pieces locking the shaft from coming out. The gears all look good, but I should take the forward section out to clean it out.
I'll keep trying to knock out the driveshaft.
 
I couldn't get the broken driveshaft out. Ot should just pull straight out, so I am figuring something bad happened in there, like the housing is broken or the bearings are somehow blocking the release of the broken driveshaft. One thing I did when installing the needle bearings - the manual said to use needle bearing grease to hold the 18 needle bearings in place so that the driveshaft could be inserted. Well, the needle bearing grease is unavailable on this website, so I just used the marine grease, which may not mix well with the type C lower gear oil, so that may have been another potential cause of my disaster.
I figured maybe my other lower drive is a better bet, so I started opening up my other lower drive that seemed to have met a similar fate - no forward gear, just reverse.
I took the whole drive apart in a few hours; the swivel housing, the prop shaft, the drive shaft, and the forward gear and the clutch spring, and everything looked PERFECT! No metal shavings, the oil looked perfect, and the gears looked great! I ran out of time, but I will check the forward coil, and I did previously find the shift cable was compromised - had been spliced and came apart. I did activate the forwad and reverse coil and there did seem to be something wrong with the forward. But I will check out the coil
If it is bad, can I use the reverse coil from my other drive? At this point, I can't get to the forward, as the driveshaft is in the way.
 
And there is a big difference in price, $121.60 for the forward and $215.60 for the reverse!
I checked out all four of the coils on my two lower units and they are all bad, above the reamended 4.5 -6.5 in the manual.
The forward one in the unit that I am going to use is the worst, at 7.2 - all the three others were around 6.8. They all tested out fine before I put them in at between 5.6 and 6.0, and that was just a few hours of use, so I want new ones.
I am assuming that the coil was the cause of failure on that unit, as I only lost forward, and it just lost the grip of the clutch spring.
I found a new in the box forward on eBay for $24, so I ordered it. There were two used reverse coils, one for $90 and the other for $150. They said they were tested, but no telling how long they would last. I don't really want to pay $215.60.
If anyone has one, part #382367, let me know. Even a used one that tests well for a reasonable price.
 
Okay, I got the new forward coil and checked it on the meter and it read 7.3! So, I got my other meter and it and all my coils read 5.6 to 6.0, just as I remember - all are good!
So, I do not have an explanation of why that lower lost forward, other than maybe that splice in the shift cable failed. Everything else looks really good: the gears, the clutch spring, the clutch hub and all else look perfect - you would never know that it was almost 50 years old. There was hardly any metal in the magnet springs.
I guess I will just put it back together with the good shift cable from my other drive and test it, unless anyone has any ideas.
 
I got the lower back together and mated it to the upper. I am assuming that the cause for the failure was the spliced shift cables that had separated, as nothing else was found flawed in the lower. I will be mounting it back onto the boat soon.
I still haven't been able to get the broken driveshaft out of my other lower drive. Seems to be broken about at the needle bearings and it won't come out. There is nothing to grab onto to try to use a wheel puller to get it out. There are some good parts in the forward section that I could sell if I could just get the driveshaft out. I guess that lower is probably destroyed and will be sitting on a shelf for a while until I trash it.
 
Neal,
If the drive shaft is broken, then isn't the pinion gear & nut still on it? How would you turn shaft to unthread the nut?
There is a procedure for this situation on a Mercruiser. IDK If it could be adapted to work on a Fossil Drive?
Assuming it's a clean break that would indeed slip thru the roller bearing, how much room downward could the remnant shaft & gear slide? Enough to drop loose & come out the bottom? 1", 2"?
A long brass or aluminum drift (3/4" dia maybe) to hit it downward?
 
I got the nut off of the pinion gear, so that part of the shaft is wedged solid. The top part of the shaft turns but won't pull out. The pinion gear is just dangling there held in by the forward gear and the driveshaft. The forward gear and all can't come out as the pinion gear and the bottom part of the driveshaft is in the way. I don't think the lower part of the shaft could come out the bottom - only if it is broken below the bearing race - but wedged solid? I think I'm stuck. I think the lower housing is junk. I could cut the lower housing and salvage the parts.
 
I'm trying to remember....
Is there enough shaft to clamp it in a big vise & beat the top of housing with a mallet cushioned by a wood block? Maybe you break something but what do you have to loose?
 
The spline section of the shaft sticks up - I don't have a big vise but can probably clamp something onto it and beat on it or pry it with a big bar, which I do have. I have just been using a vise grip.
I will probably concentrate on getting my outdrive back on the boat and deal with the junk later.
 
I have slide hammer adapters to turn a vise grip into a slide hammer puller. Come in handy every once in a while.
 
Back
Top