CLE lower unit questions

[tabme]

I have no hands on knowledge of CLE lower units,So some simple questions i hope. Mine has a 1.75 ratio can i in stall 2.0 gears on the same carrier and is there anything special about the parts in a CLE. Thank You

[wolfgangb]

Nothing special: to accommodate the gear ratio (four are available since the Sportmaster came on the market) changes while maintaining approximately the same gear outside diameter to fit into CLE and/or Sportmaster casings, Mercury change the Modulus (for the layman: the gear tooth spacing) of the gears. Do not forget to install all new seals and bearings, reshim the lot as per Merc Manual (using pinion height tool and long feeler gauge, verify assy. with backlash tool) Bearing replacement and shimming may take 3 hours or 3 days - dependent on how the tolerances of the casing and the other components stack up. This job cannot be rushed .
Install the seals (propshaft and driveshaft) only after shimming is done. Use Merc seal protector over propshaft threads. On final assembly, use Merc EP Grease on gears and bearings, and Merc 2-4-C Teflon Grease on the seals and WP impeller. The two propshaft seals in the back-end of the Bearing Carrier must be installed with red Loctite - they like to wiggle themselves out.
Rgds, Wolfgang (South Africa)

[tabme]

Thank you for the reply Wolfgangb and the information

[superboattwin250]

Is it an early or late model cle ? 4 hole or 2? The shimming and pinion height can take a little bit to do. Use all the correct tools or it won’t last

[25two.stroke]

Yes, depending on what model CLE is they had different parts. Given that you have a 1.75 set that leads me to believe its a later model that accommodates the sportmaster sized gears. Cause back with the early CLEs they only offered 2.0 and 1.87. When they went to the fatter prop shaft they offered the 4 different gear ratios.
Since you already have a 1.75 I am almost positive you have a fatter prop shaft (whether it was original in your case or not). So that means you gotta order the sporty/late CLE gearset rather than the smaller (fishin sized) gearset.
should be p/n 43-44102A5

[TEXAS20225]

there is no different size big bearing gearsets physically speaking all late model cle, sporty, torqmaster gears are identical (except for ratio) they even have the same part numbers when searching for a certain same ratio set. The difference is in the way gears were machined early model gearsets had no trust washer machined in reverse gear all were dimensionally the same, merc introduced the 2 new gear sets in late 90's or early 2000 im not too sure exactly when but they became available from mercury, i personally never bought any even though i had been strictly in lower unit business for a very long time(too long) and any one who knew me knows just how many gear case parts were in my 2500 sq ft shop 1000's when they walked in its possible to load any big bearing gearset in any big bearing case which includes cle torqmaster and sporty you just need to know what your doing even though early model gearsets were made a little different they will still load in any big bearing case consumer and so on there were 3 ratio avail from merc till the last two came a 2.35 ratio was available for high altitude service not many of them in this neck of the woods, if people would call the propshafts by what they were it would be a lot simpler IE small shaft should be considered consumer it is a small shaft. big bearing small hub is what it is. big bearing big hub is what it is clear as mud to me but then im old just my .02

[LakeFever]

Are the cle gears not harder or stronger than bb consumer gears?