150 Black Max lower unit

[bchildress]

I assume my Black Max is a 88 or 89 model. The lower unit just went out and I would like to know what year and make will interchange? Also I would like to know if anyone can tell me what year the motor actually is by the serial number.....(0b382997)ThanksI understand that motors are electric and engines are combustable. So why do they call them outboard motors..

[KCLOST]

That's a 1989 model....You can use a lower unit from a 135, 150, 175, or 200 hp motor with the same shaft length and from the black max series...Check out Ebay, there's always a few on there for sale...

[ronmold]

carefull w/ the 175 & 200 lowers, they had a 1.87:1 gear ratio and the 135 & 150 had a 2:1 ratio so the smaller HP could turn the prop the right speed. your lower should have a sticker w/ the # 14 on it. the 1.87:1 lowers have a 15 on them.

[bchildress]

Good info sure it will help.

[bchildress]

Two more question. Has anyone had a lower unit just start making noise all at once. I was running about 4500 rpm's and it sounded like something just snapped. At first I thought a piston or rod in the engine.Got it home and pulled the drain plug on the lower unit and the oil had a lot metal in it. Other then getting the Lower Unit apart it doesn't look that hard to rebuild. Any pointers on the rebuild?

[BF]

I think my V150 is an '82... careful about swapping LU's between years. On the early ones like mine, they're the kind that have a preload pin on top of the driveshaft. Sometime later in the '80's they changed driveshaft styles and they didn't have preload pins anymore.The failure on yours sounds like when I broke/twisted the driveshaft on mine 2 seasons ago... found a used shaft (which wasn't that easy) and replaced all the bearings and put it together myself. The gear set was salvagable. On mine I think the upper driveshaft bearing (the one right below the water pump) went bad and was running hot... and probably what caused the driveshaft failure... but who knows, it could've gone the other way around.Even doing it cheap wasn't that cheap. (I think something like $550 in parts including a good deal on the driveshaft, $190 I think) Anyway, it's still working... so I'm happy. I bought the Seloc manual covering our motors, it was useful. Good luck. Brent