I had a buddy helping me the other day working on getting an old Ebbtide Dyna Trak 180 back together. It has a 85 Evinrude XP150 on the back. I was replacing the trolling motor with a Minn Kota Power Drive V2 and he was working on the stuck steering cable. It has the dual cables and once unhooked, the one cable in front moves freely. It is the cable that goes thru the pivot tube that is the problem.
I told him that the cable would need to come out and may have to use the lead shot hammer to get it out. Well, he unscrewed the large nuts on the cables like he was supposed to and then decided to take off both nuts that holds the pivot tube in place. Then he hammered it out to the point that the cable was inside the pivot. The pivot tube is out about 5 inched or so. If he had continued to keep doing what he was doing, the engine would have been sitting on the ground.
Now I need to figure out the easiest way to line everything back up so I can get that tube back into the pivot. Of course, My help is gone now and need to do it myself. Anyone have a trick they have used with maybe a floor jack to get it lined back up so as to slide that tube back in? Is it better to have the engine tilted all the way down or all the way up? I am thinking that may get the weight where it would be easier to line everything up. I feel like a one armed paper hanger getting lined up and trying to force the tube back in using a piece of wood and lead shot hammer. I can not believe he took off those nuts. Or do I need to get my cherry picker out and make a lift bracket so as to lift motor and get pressure off of pivot tube? Must be a simple way to do this. Any idea or experience would be appreciated.