changing prop shaft and removng floor boards

so first for the disclaimer.
This is a somewhat how to for an 07 launch 24 ssv. if you have no mechanical skill please do not try this as it is involved and you can f your boat up something good. read through this and take a look at the pics and if you want to give it a shot go for it and good luck. If not pay your dealer. yeah it sucks but its better then you messing it up and then having to pay even more to fix it.

First step:
when you hit something hard which i did take a look at the prop and assess the damage. obviously your prop will be bent but spin it and look at the end of the shaft where the cotter pin is and see if it spins true. if there is no wobble then your probably ok and only need to have your prop fixed. if not its new shaft time! Call your dealer and order the parts. tell them what kind of boat you have and order the shaft and v drive transfer case (transmission) seal. those should be the only two parts you'll need.

So to get started you'll need to pull the prop off and see how bad the shaft is bent. if its really bad you might need to have the shaft cut to pull it through the guide. if this is the case i highy recommend you have the dealer do it.

First thing is you'll have to remove the floor boards. to do this you'll have to take out the large bench seat and the large wrap around support that holds it up. you'll find several hidden screws under the carpet. grab a power drill and start taking them out. if something doesn't come out then your missing a screw keep looking. once thats all out you'll find the floor board screws in each corner. find the floor board seams and you'll see them in the corners under the carpet.

once everything is out including the coolers, yup its all got to go. you'll have access to the back section of the engine and you'll see the gas tank too. its got to come this far apart because your going to be pulling the transfer case out and pulling the prop shaft up through the boat which is why it so involved. once its all apart it will look like so.

once its this far your going to have to start taking off hoses and disconnecting wires. make sure you lable the wires for the ballest system when you take off the selenoid assy. you don't want to plug them back in and have the wrong bags fill. label your hoses if they are not so you don't mix water a fuel lines. trust me it makes reassembly a lot faster and easier. i would also cover any water intakes with duct tape so you don't get crap in there. once you've taken everything off you'll be at this point. you'll see the gas tank and water intake fittings on the transfer case taped off.

so now you'll be ready to take off the v drive transfer case or transmission. first take off the four bolts that hold the drive shaft to the transfer case. they are 14mm and you'll need two wrenches to get them off. hold the nut and undo the bolt. once the four bolts are off seperate the shaft from the case and push it down toward the packing then your ready to remove the transfer case. there are six bolts that hold it in place and i believe they are also 14mm. once you have them out you can take the transfer case off.

once the bolts are out get you and your loving friend thats helping you with this project and slowly back the v drive case off the bolts. be sure to scrape the old gasket off when its off. do not tip the trans as there is fluid in there and you don't want that mess on your hands. keep it upright please

so now that thats out of your way you can pull the shaft up and through the boat. you'll notice in the pic i posted here that there is a section of the gas tank that is kind of groved in where the fuel lines sit and its done this way so when you pull the shaft back through the boat you don't have to move the tank to get the shaft up. you might have to remove one of the metal fuel tank fittings to get the shaft up. if its still hard to pull up you may want to put some spray lube down where the shaft pulls through the brass guid under the hull. makes it a lot easier. well once the shaft is out your half way there.

well at this point get the new shaft in there. have one guy in the boat feed it slowly back down through the packing and have someone under the boat guide it through the brass holder and get that thing in place. then your ready for reassembly. do the oposite of everything you just did and your good to go. get out there and rip. hope this helps people and i'm sure i've left some stuff out so if there are any questions feel free to send me a message. just to give people and idea it took me and my friend around 6 hours to do it. so plan for that if not more. and also replace any rusty hose clamps with new ones. i had several that were in real bad shape. i got stainless steel ones from an auto parts store because they don't rust or corrode. they are more costly but well worth it for the fuel and water lines. Like i posted earlier this is super involved and can be difficult at times so please know your limits and if your not into getting this deep into a repair pay your dealer and hold them responsible for messing stuff up.

Wakejpr, just an update, you don't have to remove the engine to pull the shaft out. The coupler on your model has a large nut on the inside of the flange. Removet the nut and secure the coupler back onto the trannsmision output. Utilizing a slide hammer designed for removing prop shaft, hammer a few times and the tapper will releise. This will allow the shaft to come out the aft end of the boat. Most application come apart in under an hr. Good luck Al

Just so everyone knows the method above is not removing the engine just the v drive transfer case from the engine. We did attempt to pull the coupler off the shaft which is a lot faster then the method I've laid out above however after about an hour of trying with no success we went the direction of removing the transfer case. There is a big nut and an allen key type locking screw that sits in the coupler and if your able to get those off and the coupler pulls from the shaft then removal is a piece of cake. The prop is offset enough so you don't have to remove it. Just pull out the shaft. However mine was seized on and even with a bearing pulling tool we couldn't split the coupling from the shaft. Tried to do it after we had it out to see if it could be done so if there is a next time I have a faster way