To pull a motor out of their boat while it is still in the water? I know of a couple people that have done it with inboards, no big deal, but has anyone tried this with a sterndrive and had any luck? Believe it or not, it would be easier for me to do it in the water before I haul it out for the winter. Once it's out of the water, my marina won't let me do it on drydock. I know the motor has to be aligned after it goes back in, but I may be able to get it pretty close , enough to get it to the haulout slip. Any thought's? Thank's.

you need to plug up the water inlet hose coming from the water pickups or the drive; as well as any sea strainers.....also, depending on the model boat; the bow may lower towards the water if there is compensating weight up front....other than that, i do not see why it couldn't be done

Assuming Alpha/Bravo.

You would have to slide the engine ahead to
get the coupler and input shaft separated.

Do you have adequate room in front of the engine to do so ?

the guy that owned my top gun before me blew up so many 454/carb that we lost count and he and some kid would change them in a bout 4 hours in the water right here at the dock using a chainfall and a beam bolted to one of the pilings... took them about 4 hours to do the turn around... often much longer than the next motor would last... but doable easy.

The boat I want to do this on is a Baja 34 express, with twin 454 and Bravo 1's. The reason I want to do it now, in the water, is because the ring gear is bad on the flywheel, and I have a new ring gear for it, and I'm aware that the water intake will need to be plugged, but other than that, I've got like 4 ft. in front of the motor to slide forward. I'm thinking of doing the piling to piling across the boat to raise the motor a few inches, just enough to turn the motor and yank the coupler and flywheel.

i can't imagine 4 in is enough. i think 6 may be the min on mine anyway...

A friend of mine and his brother hauled a 4 cylinder out of a runabout by hand. Literally unbolted it, lifted it out and set it on the dock. Picked the new one up and put it in . They had a full RnR in less than an hour. It was a customer boat and a warranty deal. The boat was new and they had another model at the shop with same engine. Customer called fromt the ramp and said the engine was knocking, he said I will bet there in an hour with a new engine. That is customer service!

Alignment will be eyeballed??? Or just match the alignment of the old engine and hope for the best.

I did it in a 33 Donzi. No problem. Just mark the motor mounts whith a pen or a scribe so you can plant the engine in exactly the same spot it came from. If it was aligned before the swap, it should be aligned after. I would definetly check the alignment properly as soon as you can.

Thats what I was wondering about as well. Seems to me that you might be pulling it out again real soon to replace a coupler.