spring removal
 

need help with front of rear spring removal. the manual says to us a drift through the hole in the frame to drive out the pin. the hole is there but there is a crossmember brace in the way.has anyone got a solution as to how to get these pins out? by the way this is a 49 merc m47

I took a piece of 3/8" drill rod and bent it into a shallow 'S' shape that allowed me to get in behind that x-member.

thx mtflat. i guess you would be able to feel when the rod is on the end of the pin.or is it a matter of beating on it and if your lucky the frame rail doesnt bulge?

Luck is a lot of it, but you can sorta feel your way around there. I doubt you can hit it hard enough to bend the frame rail. Use lots of lube and shake the shackle from time to time so the pin can exit - it probably has shoulders worn in that will catch on edges. Good luck with it!

For those two pins in mine, I removed the grease nipple and threaded in a homemade sliding hammer, Worked 2 for 2. It always puzzled me why the holes were there but you couldn't use them to drive the pins out! ...Terry

Yeah, do it Terry's way.

Terry, that's sheer genius! Where were you when I was trying to get that piece of drill rod bent to just the right shape and length??
Tim

Ditto to all of the above. The one thing I would add is that rotating the pin ever once in a while when shaking the shackle during the extraction process helps also. It seems to get the shoulders past the bushing edges.
The slide hammer idea worked on 2 out of 4 for me. Pounding out the pin thru the frame access hole worked on the third. On the 4th one, I had to cut the spring, grind off the rivets, remove the fitting and press out the pin. Good thing I was replacing the springs anyway.
Oh yeah. Use a big hammer.