Taking Apart The Old Engine
I got the SBT engine in the mail four days after I called. That was fast. The SBT engine comes as a longblock, so the procedure is to strip all the stuff
off the old engine, mail the old engine back to SBT, and put the stuff on the new engine. I had already pulled manifolds, starter, hoses, and everything else except the hard stuff -- the
flywheel at one end of the crankshaft, and the PTO at the other.
The Flywheel
Both the Seloc manual and the SBT directions were pretty casual about removing the flywheel. The Seloc manual advised using a couple magic dealer tools, and the SBT
directions just said to use a pipewrench and a universal puller. I ended up grinding and drilling a piece of angle iron to bolt on the flywheel face, so I could loosen the flywheel nut.
I bolted on the angle iron and used it to hold the crankshaft while I got the nut off with a long breaker bar and a 6 point 30mm impact socket. Thank you Harbor Freight. Then I put my puller
on the flywheel and tightened it down. Result: one bent puller. I went inside and read about pulling flywheels on the SEA-DOO.NET
message board. All the messages said the same thing: put on the puller and tighten it, then tap it with a hammer, then put a torch on it. The next day I went back to Harbor Freight for
another $10 puller, put it on, tightened it, hit it with a hammer, then put the torch on it. It fell off at my feet.
I tapped out the Woodruff key from the crankshaft, and it did one of those moves where you see it pop out, but it never hits the ground. It's tiny, the size of a pencil eraser cut in half. I
couldn't find it.
The PTO
Now it was time to get the PTO off. This is basically another flywheel that threads on to the rear end of the crankshaft. It has a splined hole in its rear end that the drive shaft for the
pump fits into. The correct tool has splines like the drive shaft, and fits into the PTO. The tool has a hex on it, so you just put a big wrench on. But I didn't have the tool. The SBT
directions said to use a chain wrench, but I didn't have one of those, either. But when I was at Harbor Freight for the puller, I saw the Boa Constrictor. It's like a strap wrench, but with a
rubber strap. I figured it was worth a try.
Didn't work.
Fortunately my friend Rob was over using the DSL, and he just happened to have a five foot pipe wrench in his truck. How convenient. With that, and a couple of tie-down straps to hold the
engine in place, it was a piece of cake.
You can see me holding up that 75 pound wrench in the picture. Actually it's aluminum. I took the new engine out of the box, and noticed that I had to take off a couple more fittings from the
old engine. I got them off, and put the old engine in the box. Tomorrow it goes back to SBT. And when I was cleaning up, I found the Woodruff key!
Now we build up the old engine.
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