Water in lower unit

[Rinker85]

Hello,

​I have a 1985 2.5 L OMC 120 H.P. The boat has not been in the water yet. I changed all the gear lube last fall before storing. Today I hooked it up to the garden hose with the muffs. I heard a rattling noise from the lower unit that I have never heard in the 20 years of owning the boat. I started thinking that I didn't put enough gear lube in last fall but that was not the case. When I opened the lower unit drain plug water came out for about 20 seconds then the gear lube. The gear lube was milky. What is the main cause of water in the lower unit? Also what about the rattling noise? I'm going to pull the outdrive off this weekend and open up the lower unit. What should I be looking for?

Thanks

 

[southkogs]

Did you actually run it last year? Or was this the first time you ran it?

AND ... did you run it tilted up at all? The Stringer is designed to run in the full down position. If you were tilted up, you were probably hearing the bone chilling sound of the ball gears grinding on each other.

Water in the lower could be several things. Did you change the impeller?

 

[Scott Danforth]

if you did hear the lower unit running in water vs oil. the bearings may be toast. primarily the lower unit vertical shaft bearings.

pull the drive, pull the lower, and pressure test as needed. if you need to pull the lower apart to rebuild, you need a really long snap-ring pliers. I used a bluepoint (snapon's lower end line) may be able to get it with a gear-wrench double-x pliers.

you will also need to grind a wrench down for the pinion gear

 

[boobie]

Get yourself a service manual before you start working on it. You won't be sorry.