Do i have to pull the drive again or can i slide it far enough forward and get it off the splines to lift the engine high enough to change the ring gear. Ive put 1.45hours on it in two seasons kind of getting tired of working on it.

yes you need to pull the drive to remove the engine to remove the flywheel to replace the ring gear..

try this... tap your heals three times and wish for the ring gear to fix itself

johnny,id be very concerned why the ring gear and the starter broke.

cheap ass china gear reduction starter, should had known happened before went to a msd starter never happened again,

andy I tried that, its my own fault, should had put better brand instead of that cheap ass crap, live and learn tho, now to pulling the engine phuckin pos.

i knew i had to pull it was just wondering if i could slide it out of the coupler and raise it instead of pulling the engine.

the drive needs to come ,,once its off and if you have room in the boat you can just spin the engine to ermove the bellhousing and flywheel,,the ring can be bought at napa and you can just knock the old one off with a hammer and chisel and warn the new one up with a map torch and drop it on..once it cools install flywheel..

your heals three times and wish for the ring gear to fix itself

Once you get the flywheel and starter replaced you should remove the spark plugs and see if water blows out of them when cranking the starter. Or else you may end up replacing an expensive US made starter next.... or worse.