Gale 5hp crankshaft

[bucbob]

I have a 1956 Sea King (Gale) 5hp with a bad crank, broke a rod and lower crankthrow is badly marred. Does anyone know if all the OMC 5hp and 5 1/2hp cranks from say 1955 to 1962 are interchangeable. I know the 552681 and 552607 are the same, but wondering about later versions to ’62 and the 5 1/2hp’s.

[chris-p]

No you need the 5hp powerheads (Gale). Not the 5.5hp OMCs.

Good news is, there are gazillions of them out there!

[bucbob]

Will the later model Gale 5hps work? I have think they made them up to ’63.

[frankr]

No, they got needle bearing rods in 1961-up, with a different crank (554069)

I might have a ’56 crank out in the shop. PM me if you want me to look.

EDIT: I looked, and sorry but it has been cannibalized.

[mercuryman]

I had a 12 hp Sea King with bad rod. I though the crank was bad but it was just melted bearing material. I polished it with 400 wet or Dry and it fit the new rod just right.

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[bucbob]

I’ll try some wet or dry, but it’s pretty deeply grooved. Did you use a special tool or just elbow grease and a lot of rubbing?

[frankr]

I’ve seen a lot of them that looked like that picture. As he said, it is the bearing material fused to the crank. I used abrasive strip bought in a roll from NAPA. Tear off a piece and use it as you would a shoe-shine rag.

BTW, have you determined what caused the failure? I’ll bet it had a bad carbon seal at the bottom of the crank/top of the drive shaft. That lets water into the crankcase, which destroys the rod bearings. To the average bear, it looks like lack of oil. But the real reason is the water intrusion.

[billw]

The same thing happens to the crank when a rod lunches on a Tecumseh power equipment engine. Rather than go after it immediately with abrasive, I use muriatic acid to melt away the deposited aluminum. Disclaimer: Do not even THINK of doing this inside and be very cautious doing it outside. Use rubber gloves. The fumes are very, VERY strong, while the acid is actually working. After it calms down, you can wipe with a rag and repeat, until you have a good crank. Finish up with some 400, if you want. You can get muriatic acid at most hardware stores and home centers.

Long live American manufacturing!

[jerry-ahrens]

The procedure Bill is talking about, is a Mercury Marine recommended method of cleaning aluminum deposits off the chrome bore cylinders of the Merc V6’s . Also known as ”shotgun bore” cylinders.

[bucbob]

Thanks a bunch for all the help guys. I tried all the suggestions, that acid is some smelly stuff, and got down to a shiney surface on the metal surface, but still have six shallow grooves and one rather deep groove in the throw surface. I think it suffered a rather extreme failure when it happened as the end of the rod came out in about eight pieces, the top of one screw is rounded, and the throw lugs are actually scorched from high heat. On top of all this my new rod wouldn’t turn on the throw anyway because there was aluminum melted on the upper and lower edges of the throw that I couldn’t chip off. Shame because the rest of the crank is practically flawless! Not sure what caused the breakdown as this was a parts motor I got with a ’57 Buccaneer 5hp a few years back and just decided to preserve it. So, still looking for a crank. Does a little bit of pitting on the throw or bearing surfaces of a new(used) crank matter, if it isn’t gonna be used that much anyway? Thanks again, Bob

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