Suzuki Swivel Arm

[lucasl00]

I just bought a 1995 Key West 1720 Sportsman and it has a 2003 Suzuki 115hp four-stroke on it. The swivel arm is extremely corroded as you can see in the picture. Am I going to have to take the entire engine off of the boat? Has anyone ever had to do this and could give me some advice? Thanks

[Harper]

I've never had to tackle this, but I cannot imagine that there is possibly any way to replace it without removing the motor from the boat. The part is not only the arm, but is one piece with a steering shaft (goes down from the arm at 90°).

[Solarman]

Looks like (not great pic of entire midsection) you have most of parts removed already.
Do you have a manual? Should be a large nut with locking washer on bottom of steering shaft, is steering shaft frozen?
The mounting clamp assy doesn't have to come off boat that I know of. If no manual look at parts page pic.
If shaft is frozen, you'll need a good propane torch to loosen that up.

Let us know how is going, when able.

[Harper]

I can't see that there's much of anything taken apart yet. But I think the steering shaft is held in by a circlip, not a nut and lock washer. It must be removed by lifting the shaft from the swivel bracket (direction of red arrow in picture), and in order to do that, the power unit (green circle) would have to be removed first, then the driveshaft housing would have to come off, which requires that the lower unit be removed, yada yada......

...all done with the motor off the boat.

But like I said, I've never had to do it. I'm just going by the parts diagrams for the DF115 and the steering shaft removal instructions for my DF150, which I figure isn't much different than the DF115.

[Solarman]

Hey Mike, that pic, looked like it was just the swivel bracket itself. I can't see exhaust housing or anything above swivel setup? If swivel shaft is frozen (not turning), I doubt he can pull it out?

Yes, power head and exhaust chamber (midsection), and lower unit should be off, but I think you can pull steering shaft up (direction of your red arrow) without removing remaining clamp/mounting assy off boat? Ill look at pic again, could use a full pic of entire assy/

Sorry Mike, my mistake, was thinking '95, 2 stroke. This is 4 stroke...This does have circlip at bottom of swivel shaft. However, I still can not see anything but swivel housing (part of it) in his pic?

Ralph

[Harper]

Could be, Ralph....I really can't make out the picture. I keep turning it around and trying to figure out what we have here, but you're right if all that stuff is already off.

[lucasl00]

Appreciate it guys. The engine is still on the boat so I'm just going to take it to a mechanic and let him take the engine off and replace the swivel arm. I don't have the tools or experience to do it myself.

[Harper]

Okay, Lucas. Thanks for letting us know. Hopefully it won't be too big a job for a shop with the proper tools and experience. Let us know how it all turns out.

[seacat47]

I had 2001 df 115 and replaced swivel arms without removing powerhead,. I left engines attached to boat and removed the two nuts at top of swivel bracket under the powerhead and the two long bolts that hold foot to swivel bracket while engine weight was supported by engine hoist ,pulled engine away from swivel bracket, removed circle clip at bottom of bracket and pulled swivel straight up and replaced with new one. went pretty smooth

[Solarman]

You didn't have to remove the lower unit?

[Harper]

If I understand what seacat is saying, he removed the whole motor by detaching the swivel bracket/clamp at the motor mounts (at the thrust block), then pulled it away far enough to pull out the steering bracket. The long bolts he refers to are #10 here......2003 DF115 Suzuki Marine Outboard DRIVE SHAFT HOUSING Diagram and Parts

[Solarman]

Yes, and my thought was, he had to pull the shift rod at the top (under powerhead) and the connection at the midsection, but did he have to pull the lower unit? Just wondering.

[seacat47]

Yes I did have to pull lower unit, its been about a year since I did this, sorry I forgot to mention that

[lucasl00]

Well I was planning on taking it to the mechanic and let him replace the swivel arm but I just spoke to him and he said just in labor cost I am looking at a minimum of $800 bucks, if everything goes perfect. OUCH. I was able to buy a swivel arm that's in near perfect condition on ebay for under 50 bucks! Im going to spray it down with cold galvanizing spray. I just have to figure out what I am going to do to get it on!