stern housing gasket/seal

theres a large rubber seal/gasket at back of my glassmaster. Its the large rubber "horse collar" that seals the outdrive from the motor. its marked "top" and "bottom" however ive noticed that someone has installed it upside down. Is this a major issue? Is it hard to fix, or would i be ok to leave it "upside down"?

thanks

Re: stern housing gasket/seal

You have what they call a stringer mount drive OMC. It is important that its mounted correctly as the engine is trimmed up and down the bellows part of the seal flexs with the motion of trimming up and down .
If you had it off you would see the top and bottom are dimensionally differant.
Very easy fix. Just run the screws out and spin it around .
Most likely when they installed it they used sealer so be careful you dont tear the boot getting it off .
Clean all the old sealer off and when ready to reinstall it get some Boatlife caulk and put a bead where boot mates and on each screw as you put it back on.
Dont use 5200 sealer it will be one hell of a mess if you ever have to take it off again.

Re: stern housing gasket/seal

So as not to get frustrated, after removing the screws look on the backside of the boot near the Intermediate Casing for possible the biggest Hose Clamp you have ever seen. Your spinning of the boot will be a lot easier if that clamp is loosened. The Metal Ring holding the boot to the transom has a "Top" position stamped on it as does the Rubber Boot. This information is based off a 1975 OMC Stringer. They could be very similar to your situation.

Re: stern housing gasket/seal

I'm not sure if it would do any harm to leave it, but I'd check out how much the boot flexes/stretches as you trim the drive up and down. The hole for the drive is a little off center vertically, so the short side may stretch a bit too much and probably need replacing sooner. However, if it's in good shape and you don't have power trim where you would be working the boot more, it will probably be fine. Just a guess, as I put mine on right side up. J/K. Mine's a '75 175hp btw.

If you do change it, paultech and Lindy's posts about cover it. Happy boating!