thanks--very helpful. the 3 marked places are all the same part, the drive shaft. however, i'm wondering if an isolated failure of the upper gears in "a" would result in my symptoms. it seems that i would still need a failure of the driveshaft, correct?
ok, so it was both gears in the upper gearset, probably due to being lubricated by the milky watery fluid that was passing as my gear oil. i also found that there was a leak into the shift cable area--this allowed a touch of water into where the u-joint lives, but it didn't look like m uch in there. grease was still intact, smooth gimbal bearing. i don't think this leak would be related to the drive failure, right? i must have another leak... on to the questions. 1. can i just replace the upper gearset here, and do i need special tools aside from the bearing retainer wrench? 2. how do i track down my leak? i've seen stuff on pressurizing the drive, is that what this is for? 3. local marina has a used outdrive for $500--what's a good price for one, keeping in mind that im not in a hurry for several months? 4. what gearset do i have in my '86 mmerc 170? i think it's 1.84, but how can i tell for sure? let me see if i can post some pics; the input gear was smooth, and the driven gear chewed up.
You will have metal throughout the whole drive. I would say that the lower gears will be the next to go, and soon - if you simply fix or replace the upper.
You can shop around for used drives, but as I mention above, the aftermarket Sterndrive Engineering drives are hard to beat - come with a good warratny and everything.
Re: afraid of Very Bad things/merc outdrive
Linear Mode
