RDE-17 Mid Section & Gear Case, "This and That"

[Buccaneer]

Working on Mid Section / Exhaust housing and have a few issues,
questions, and thoughts.

Exhaust Loading Tube assembly – Little plate with the two tubes.
What do it do….. other than "load exhaust". 😕

Water pump intake screen-
The screen is bent up, so I thought I’d pop out the core plug
on the end, remove screen, and straighten it. Not so easy.
Plug turned out to be a thick aluminum plug, probably
a 1/2" long. I know this, as I drilled in near that deep
and didn’t go thru yet. I threaded the hole and tried to
pop it out with my slide hammer. NO GO, even after heating
the thin casting around it with a bottle torch.
The plug doesn’t look to be that thick on the parts diagram.
Any suggestion to remove it? If not, I’ll simply ignor the
bent screen and move on with life!

Water Pump Intake Plate-
The plate is all pitted up, and I wanted to take a peek behind it.
There’s a screw on one side, but where the other screw should
be, it appears to be factory spot welded or attached otherwise.
What’s up with that?

Drive Shaft Bushing-
It’s loose in it’s bore (but no play or evidence of wear on ID or OD).
Is this by design? I pulled it right out of the bore with my finger.

I spent a lot of time yesterday tightening up the shifting mechanism
on the exhaust housing. I took photos before hand, but didn’t
notice that the end of the shift rod, just above the connector,
is bent. Looking at the parts manual, it appears the bend points
towards the "Aft". Is this correct?
I made a bushing for the outer end of the "shift lever shaft".
That tightened this up nicely, but there was a 1/4" of axial
movement in the shaft if one pulled on the shaft.
The o-ring kind of holds the shaft in place. Not sure it was an
issue, but I made a stainless steel spacer to eliminate the movement.
Also, I was surprised to see the pin in the shift lever so sloppy
with grooves wore 1/3 rd of the way thru, so I made a new oversize
pin.
Tips and Thoughts appreciated.

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Attachments:

Prepare to be boarded!

[frankr]

The plug should just yank out. But if it is that stubborn, it might be better off left alone—if not drilled through or drilling replugged. You don’t want to break the thin material surrounding it.

Looks like good work on the shifter. The interlock bar normally holds it "in", but your spacer is ok. Yeah, bottom end points aft.

I say that is the remains of a busted screw in the bypass cover

Yep, that is a free floating bushing by design.

[Buccaneer]

quote FrankR:

The plug should just yank out. But if it is that stubborn, it might be better off left alone—if not drilled through or drilling replugged. You don’t want to break the thin material surrounding it.
I drilled my little tapped hole the rest of the way through the plug, and
using a stiff rod / wire, I was able to push the screen back to almost normal shape.
I’ll just put a little set screw in the hole and call it good.

I say that is the remains of a busted screw in the bypass cover
whatever was holding that end of the cover, it’s gone now.
I drilled it out and tapped some new threads.

Yep, that is a free floating bushing by design.
First one of those I’ve ran into that I remember!

Thanks!

Prepare to be boarded!

[Author]

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