engine coupler smoked
 

toasted the engine coupler pulled drive and took a peek on the drive shaft appears to be in the coupler only 1 1/2" how far should it slide in ? it looks like there is about 1" of spline left in engine coupler wondering if the engine is to far forward,needs to be moved back 1" there was 1 1/2" worth of coupler on drive shaft any help would be great thanks

When a coupler blows up, 99% of the time, the rubber fails. The location of the input shaft from the drive has nothing to do with it. I dont know for sure how much of the splines are not into the coupler, but I would imagine about 1 to 1 1/2 inches is normal.

If you're getting it in an inch and a half that's plenty. We check it by putting fresh grease on the splines installing it then pulling it back out and see how much of the new grease is pushed.

Only way for the shaft to not enter the coupler is if your transom thickness is way over the Merc specs.
Motor bolts to the transom assembly, so that is a set dim.

thanks guys i guess we going for new coupler and not relocating engine

Firehawk,
The old style steel short hub coupler went up in price to about $800. The long steel snout is about half of that. But beware, some input shafts dont fit it and will almost bolt up. The drive will, as they tell me, be within an 1/8" - 1/4" of seating.
If you force it, it pushes on the crank and will destroy the motor in a short amount of time.
So check to make sure the new coupler will accept your input shaft.
If you have only two orings on the shaft, I am told it wont fit.

Hope that helps.
Dick

thanks for the info thats one less problem to fix with the engine placement

Damn, I so hope that isn't true. I just got 2 new ones and my input shafts only have 2 o-rings, is there anywhere I can check on this, there is nothing in the parts catalog about it.

Had a friend that found out the hard way, check it. Do u have the long steel hub?

Yes, I bought 2 new ones for my HP500s but I have the older input shafts. From what I am hearing the only difference is the older shaft doesn't have the 3rd o-ring to keep the grease in, no one seems to know about a bind issue.