55HP Chrysler Long Shaft (oil after sitting in barrel overnight)

[bbrian017]

I was playing with the new boat, left her in the barrel overnight and woke up to this oil,

I have read some replies here in the forums, from what I see it's unburned engine oil and by sitting it in the water it all clumped together and came out of the bottom of the shaft.

Check the picks I hosted to my website folder, let me know what you think.

http://www.backlakefishing.com/boat/

Thanks everyone!

Brian

 

[Frank Acampora]

You definitely have a bad drive shaft seal under the water pump.You need to drop the lower unit and remove the water pump. Pull out the drive shaft and remove the old seal. Press in the new seal and replace the drive shaft.. Smell the oil. It will smell like sulphur. This is the typical odor for rear-end oil. Once you smell it you will never forget it.

The definite clues are: Milky gear oil indicating water leak and oil coming from the water intake.

The seal was never changed from Chrysler to early force so If no one lists a seal for your engine buy one for a 84-90 Force.

While you are at it, change the water pump impeller--after all, you already have the pump off.

 

[bbrian017]

The oil smells like gas....it's very easy to tell the smell. I also heard this happens a lot when running in a barrel... You get a lot of unburned oil at the idle and low speeds.

Question: What is the worse that can happen with a bad drive shaft oil leak?

 

[Frank Acampora]

Yes, running in a barrel will accumulate a lot of gas smelling oil.

HOWEVER Your lower unit oil is milky in color indicating water is present--a lot of it. If you continue to run with a bad seal eventually the seal will fail completely and you will pump a lot of water into the lower unit, displacing all the oil. After that it is not long until the gears are stripped and the bearings go bad. Murphy says that it will happen far from the dock! (If by some chance you leave it over the winter in a cold climate the water will freeze and crack the lower unit casting).

Then, it is time to buy a good used lower unit because gears and bearings will actually cost more. Way cheaper to spend the 10 bucks for a seal and 20 bucks for an impeller.

 

[bbrian017]

I thank you for the advice! I have replaced the lower unit gear oil, I'll bring her out for a run tomorrow, drain it and see what I'm dealing with.

If I don't see anything I'll open the lower unit and inspect it for oil leakage, if I don't see any I'll consider it build up from over oiled unburned gas!

I agree with you, beter to be safe than sorry, 30 bucks in parts is far better than replacing the entire shaft, gears and other...