Tweet
I just installed a new SE116 onto my 1990 Seaswirl Sable cuddy cabin with OMC 5.7L. Luckily my brother is a Mercruiser guy, and helped guide me through the various o-rings & seals (this would be a helpful addition to the install manual - although I'm sure it's available on-line). I just wanted to highlight a couple things from my install.
1. I had no trouble getting the shift cable to go up the tube into the engine compartment, without laying the tube flat in the bilge as some recommend. I did, however, tape a blunt end over the cable tip to keep it from hanging up on the way up the tube.
2. I attached the water hose to the bell housing before attaching the bell housing with the allen head pins. This gave a lot more visibility to the hose clamp, and the ability to get a better grip on the hose to push it in place (a little windex also helped get it on the hose nipple). I think in all I had to trim about 3" - 4" inches off it to get it not to kink, and still have full up & down/side to side motion with the bell housing.
3. The original OMC bell housing allen head pins were 1/2" as indicated in the install manual... however, the replacement SEI ones were smaller. Rather than buying another expensive allen head socket, I found I had a torx socket that fit (don't ask me the size, I didn't bother checking). If this is standard, you may want to note that in the manual.
4. I believe I read in the install manual to cut 4" off the exhaust bellows for a better fit. Next time I think I would do as I did with the water hose, and cut a little at a time until it is just right. Now it's too short and unusable, although it sounds like it is also unnecessary. I just hope it is not too loud 'cuz I'm a cruiser, not a performance boat. Maybe in my youth... If you do cut off just the bell housing end of the hose, that freshly cut end will fit over the bell housing end just fine (you just have to oval out the hose clamp a bit since the new merc style is not round).
5. When I assembled the upper & lower units, it appears the studs used to line up the two halves were a little stubborn. They easily slipped together until the last 1/4", then I had to work them together slowly by tightening the bolts evenly until everything finally snugged up. I took it apart a couple times to make sure I had the water connector lined up.
6. I must say it was a quite a sight holding up the drive shaft while my brother slipped the rubber o-rings in place.... Thank goodness there were no cameras around.
7. Now I'm at the part that appears to frustrate people. I found that I have to replace my stock controls in favor of a generic control unit (does not support reversing the controls). My brother had a used Morse control and some Merc cables, but now I apparently need an adapter to connect the Merc cables to my OMC, or an adapter to connect my OMC cables to the Morse shifter. So far I have not found much information on this topic. I'm sure many people have already dealt with this issue. Any advice? I would prefer to keep the stock cables, since the engine end sounds like it is tricky to begin with without dealing with different cable ends.
All in all, I am very happy with this conversion kit and install. The timeliness of the delivery was far quicker than I anticipated. I would suggest including upper/lower unit assembly instructions in the manual that comes with the drive, just to make it simple, and maybe a few more pictures and close-ups would be useful (showing best placement of hose clamps, seal locations, exhaust bellows modification, etc.).
Crossing my fingers that the shift adjustments go smoothly, as well as the engine interrupt switch rewire. If there is a diagram on how the shift adjustments should be measured, I would appreciate seeing that.
Good luck to the next guy.
1. I had no trouble getting the shift cable to go up the tube into the engine compartment, without laying the tube flat in the bilge as some recommend. I did, however, tape a blunt end over the cable tip to keep it from hanging up on the way up the tube.
2. I attached the water hose to the bell housing before attaching the bell housing with the allen head pins. This gave a lot more visibility to the hose clamp, and the ability to get a better grip on the hose to push it in place (a little windex also helped get it on the hose nipple). I think in all I had to trim about 3" - 4" inches off it to get it not to kink, and still have full up & down/side to side motion with the bell housing.
3. The original OMC bell housing allen head pins were 1/2" as indicated in the install manual... however, the replacement SEI ones were smaller. Rather than buying another expensive allen head socket, I found I had a torx socket that fit (don't ask me the size, I didn't bother checking). If this is standard, you may want to note that in the manual.
4. I believe I read in the install manual to cut 4" off the exhaust bellows for a better fit. Next time I think I would do as I did with the water hose, and cut a little at a time until it is just right. Now it's too short and unusable, although it sounds like it is also unnecessary. I just hope it is not too loud 'cuz I'm a cruiser, not a performance boat. Maybe in my youth... If you do cut off just the bell housing end of the hose, that freshly cut end will fit over the bell housing end just fine (you just have to oval out the hose clamp a bit since the new merc style is not round).
5. When I assembled the upper & lower units, it appears the studs used to line up the two halves were a little stubborn. They easily slipped together until the last 1/4", then I had to work them together slowly by tightening the bolts evenly until everything finally snugged up. I took it apart a couple times to make sure I had the water connector lined up.
6. I must say it was a quite a sight holding up the drive shaft while my brother slipped the rubber o-rings in place.... Thank goodness there were no cameras around.
7. Now I'm at the part that appears to frustrate people. I found that I have to replace my stock controls in favor of a generic control unit (does not support reversing the controls). My brother had a used Morse control and some Merc cables, but now I apparently need an adapter to connect the Merc cables to my OMC, or an adapter to connect my OMC cables to the Morse shifter. So far I have not found much information on this topic. I'm sure many people have already dealt with this issue. Any advice? I would prefer to keep the stock cables, since the engine end sounds like it is tricky to begin with without dealing with different cable ends.
All in all, I am very happy with this conversion kit and install. The timeliness of the delivery was far quicker than I anticipated. I would suggest including upper/lower unit assembly instructions in the manual that comes with the drive, just to make it simple, and maybe a few more pictures and close-ups would be useful (showing best placement of hose clamps, seal locations, exhaust bellows modification, etc.).
Crossing my fingers that the shift adjustments go smoothly, as well as the engine interrupt switch rewire. If there is a diagram on how the shift adjustments should be measured, I would appreciate seeing that.
Good luck to the next guy.
Comment