No ..... not what you all thought. I was trying to replace the anode on my outboard and did the usual tap tap tap on the stainless bolt head and then heated the area with a propane torch and then hit it with WD 40, Penetrene and eucalyptus oil (did you know that eucalyptus oil is very good at breaking down alloy corrosion?). Gentle pressure on the socket and the bolt let go. Snapped off at the gearbox lower leg unit.
Had to walk away and leave it before I lost my cool and did some damage... Another problem for another day.

Put the rod in the car and went for a drive to the rocks. The water was very clear, had little wash and not much weed on the rocks. First cast and a few minutes in the water, saw the float go slowwwlllly down. Lifted the rod and hokked a feisty little fish. Turned out to be a black drummer. Next hour saw not another down, but I flirted with a small reef about 30m out, and as the tide was falling, got hooked up on the kelp. I only had a 4lb trace on so thought the hook would break away, but no, the line broke above the float. Another float lost at this same spot. Packed up, released the fish and came home to sit in front of the heater. Did manage to call into a mates place. He owned DP Whitton & Sons fishing tackle, way back in time, and asked if I wanted some brand new champagne corks to make new floats. Went to the garage and he had a couple of thousand new corks in boxes ... wow!!!. He didn't have any cane stems though, so I will have to try and find where to get them. Got enough corks for a dozen sea floats. The commercial ones are crap, so I would rather make my own.
Now to figure out how to remove the broken bolt without dropping off the gearbox/lower leg.

Nice fishing report, but when are you going to learn not to touch things??

Yeah you will have to call me Errol Flynn rather than the King. Didn't Errol *&%@ everything he touched?

Wot wittle thingy was he touching Bees ????



Dont tink so



Why heat that area when no part of the thread is in the vicinity ??

All ewe did was to weaken the bolt s/s is soft enough a metal on it's own without the use of heat, all ewe did was aneal the bolt even more

Heat should allways be directed where the alloy is threaded

You silly, silly man.

That bolt screws into the L/U mate it's not like there is a nut up there.
I'm betting the anode didn't even need replacing so how do you feel now?

It would be easier to get out with the L/U off and you could do your water pump at the same time.
With the L/U off you could turn it upside down, silastik a little barrier on either side and fill it with penetrene.
Soak, drill, heat, easyout, bla bla.... Good luck but remember this, you will only get one good go at this so your first go has to be your best go.
I have the OMC service manual here if you need it.

Got the seals done in both my trim rams for $50 the other day, I doubt I could have bought the removal tool for that, sometimes getting stuff done by other people can work out cheap especially if you add in the stress factor.

good report kk, to bad you missed out on one of those etec motors the bigfaller had