1982 9.8 Mercury - Lower Unit Oil Leak - Coming from behind gearcase

[IowaHawkGuy]

I noticed a little bit of oil leaking out of my lower unit, I went ahead emptied my lower unit oil and I found a decent amount of water in the gearcase. It is worth noting that a week or so prior to this I hit a rock pretty soundly with my prop. Anyway, I figured I had a bad seal somewhere and went ahead and put air on it and noticed that the shift shaft seal was leaking, which I replaced. Well I decided to fill it back up with oil and the next day I come back to a pool of oil on the floor. It appeared to be coming from the gearcase area on the prop shaft. I put air back on it and some soapy water and bubbles were coming out of the area where the circle is in the picture. Not sure where to go from here, or if it is even salvageable at this time.

Thanks for any help, it is much appreciatted.

 

[tpenfield]

Considering you hit something and now it is leaking in the area where the bearing carrier seats into the gear case . . . I would say you have deformed the gear case.

You could check to see if you can find a lower unit to that vintage 9.8 and go from there.

 

[Texasmark]

Deformed or more likely cracked, it being cast aluminum and no tensile strength. Must have whacked what you hit pretty hard considering that 9.8 isn't going to set any speed records.