Mine are looking like chit so I want to remove them and sandblast/paint.......Ive heard some nightmares.......the boat is an 89' and I can pretty safely say they have never been off.......any tips..........doug

You may want to punch out the shafts while they are still on the transom. Dont lose the c-clips, there expensive little buggers.

Doug,
I pulled mine a few years ago and had them blasted and then powder coated. Lots of fun! Give me a call.
Phil

Don't bother cleaning them, once you get them off ship them to me and get some new ones.

I pulled mine off about three months ago...I used a sharp scraper/putty knife and took my time. Once off it took awhile to clean-up the transom with solvent so it was ready for the new tabs but all in all, it wasn't a real big deal, just time consuming to do it right. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with the 5200!

I tried to pound out the shafts, moved about an inch and NO MORE, tried to pound them back....NO WAY.......thats why I want to take them off.....I may have to get a machine shop to get the shafts out.......you can get new shafts from Merc.......right?????

Try soaking them with PB Blaster. That stuff is 10x better than wd40.

Make your own and thread the ends so you can get rid of those silly little clips.

worst case senario.... EDM them out.......