Just wanted to share my pleasure with all you fine gentlemen.

I finally got around to building a drive stand to aid in removal and reinstallation of my outdrive. All I can say is, I will never again install a drive without one.

Building it took a total of about 3 hours, not including the time i spent going to get pieces. Total money spent was $78. I bought a cheap engine stand and a square tube tongue jack from Harbor Freight and then bought 10' of 1"x1.5" steel tubing to make the fork that holds the drive on.

I didnt use the vertical part of the engine stand, instead I welded the tongue jack to the base. Then to that I welded a 24"x4.5" fork made of the steel box tubing, giving it a slight cant to the rear, figuring that the play in the jack would make it lean forward when a weight was placed on it (I was right). The engine stand has two fixed solid wheels, and a solid caster up front, so it wont work on gravel. It also requires that your skeg be at least 5" from the ground, because the front extension of the base extends straight under the drive. Not a big deal to me, as mine is 5" from the ground when the trailer is jacked up all the way.

I picked up my drive from the drive guy, it was just rebuilt, and dropped it on the stand. I lined it up, raised it up to get it the right height, and slid it on. Total time to install the drive was approximately 5 minutes, counting the time it took to tighten all six nuts and the trim ram nuts. Awesome. I would recommend it to everyone who will ever take off or install a drive. I expended absolutely zero effort in this task.

what he said

I built one out of an engine stand I had lying around. Got some L-brackets welded and bolted them on.

Nice Hustler poster

alright you crybabies. Dont laugh about the paint, it was just to keep it from rusting and I didnt have enough to paint the whole thing.

[QUOTE=Philm;3204935]alright you crybabies. Dont laugh about the paint, it was just to keep it from rusting and I didnt have enough to paint the whole thing.

Thats a good idea using the jack

You have GOOD eyesight! I can barely make it out in the pic.

The jack is cool! I just adjust the tongue jack to get the right height. That might not work on s bigger boat.

it gives a very large amount of adjustability. And can be adjusted in very very small increments, like when inserting the trim ram shaft, if you arent exactly on, it is a pain to get in. With this jack, you just adjust the height until it slides right in.

It was not my idea, I saw it on someone elses stand.

But you idea of using a cheap engine stand saves a lot of work.