'87 15hp water intrusion in lower unit

[iwombat]

I have a water intrusion problem in the lower unit of my kicker. Tried new seals around the drain plugs to no avail.

So, after reading the complete and total disassembly of everything procedures for the LU in the manual, it seems like a whole lot of overkill for plugging a water leak.

What are some suggestions for a decent combination of inspection & reseal w/o pulling every bearing and race in the entire LU? Or, is that what I'm in for anyway?

 

[Marc III]

Re: '87 15hp water intrusion in lower unit

Pull the lower unit and pressure test it. Keep it under 15 psi and submerge it to find your leak. Maybe you'll get lucky and it won't require a full disassembly.

 

[iwombat]

Re: '87 15hp water intrusion in lower unit

I was figuring on replacing all the outer seals at the very least, then pressure testing. I usually figure if one was worn enough to give up the ghost, the others can't be too far behind. Seems like there ought to be some low-hanging fruit to go ahead and inspect for wear while I have it apart though.

Knowing me, I'll end up doing it all anyway though - just because. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother asking these things.

 

[iwombat]

Re: '87 15hp water intrusion in lower unit

Well I pumped some air into the LU and I've got air pouring out of the water intake vents. Looking at the diagrams, I'm not exactly what could be the cause of that. I've also got a little air coming out of the prop shaft - that seems straight forward.

 

[Xcusme]

Re: '87 15hp water intrusion in lower unit

My guess would be drive shaft seals, air is pushing into the water pump housing and then out the water intake vent. I hope you're not using too much air pressure, it shouldn't take much air pressure to test the seals, 3 to 6 psi should be good.

 

[iwombat]

Re: '87 15hp water intrusion in lower unit

I'm using a small hand pump w/ a guage. It won't even hold enough air to register on the guage.

 

[iwombat]

Re: '87 15hp water intrusion in lower unit

So, I took it all apart - top and bottom seals were both shot. Looks like I caught the problem before it could do too much damage though.

Here's the weird thing: The detent balls and spring where nowhere to be found.

What's up with that?