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I have attached photos of the lower unit as it has been cut for attachment of the lower pivot shaft boss. Sad to cut a virtually new unit, but had to do to complete my goal. The wood pattern is placed in the weld position. The front cut out is still nearly 1/2 of an inch in front of the water passage that comes up under the water pump base forward of the drive shaft. The weld will only be in and forward of the water passage and the extensions of the casting to the rear are pressure pads that align with the solid part of the gear case between the drive shaft cavities. I will remove the forward drive shaft to shorten and re-cut the spines. Welding and machining will be done then.
The need came for a new clamp bracket. The boat has a 90 degree transom and the standard clamp swivel bracket assembly on a 90 degree transom will not allow the engine to adjust parallel to the water let alone the required 6 degree tuck under. You can see in the drawing that I let the swivel bracket pivot on the tilt adjust pin 8 degrees back to a new tilt pin location. That adjustment is made in the new clamp bracket.
Have assembled the crankshaft with the main bearings and the rods. Just got the spiral lock rings for the wrist pin keepers, so I can hang the pistons. The spiral locks for the main bearings were placed on a surface grinder and ground to a tight fit in the bearing race grooves. I then made a socket mandural on the lathe and ground the ID of the locks to match the shell groove diameter. This was done to provide a perfect, if there is such a thing, alignment vertically of the two halves. These were cut with EDM and not broken like OEM bearing races. The rings were then loaded on the crank and then the loaded shells between the rings. Then the rings were loaded up into the grooves and lightly tapped into the grooves for positive seating.
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