Grease coming from shaft vent holes????

OK, here is a Johnson 74' 6hp, In the middle of rebuilding carb and installing coils, points and condenser. About ready to put the armature plate back on. Carb is still off. Behinf the carb and right above the intake manifold and back behinf that the shaft housing rises up...Those two holes there in the shaft housing facing the carb side...There seems to be an excessive amount of grease that appears to have come from those two holes. I guess those are some kind of vend holes. Whats up???? Thanks... Fishermanms

Re: Grease coming from shaft vent holes????

So, I sez "huh?". But I got out the book and do see the holes you speak of. However, I don't have a clue where they go or what they do. They surely can't go into the main bearing area. I dunno.

EDIT: You got me wondering so much that I went out and looked at an old Gale 12 that I have tore apart. It has similar holes but they don't go anywhere. So I still dunno what they are there for. I can't stand it.

Re: Grease coming from shaft vent holes????

Well... I just B Da%.... Thats tha first one I posted Thats got ya stumped. I told my wife last night that if you ran across this thread... If anybody new, you would... And Im bet you will figure it out... But to be honest, if the grease thats there, (its grey grease), has been there a long time, I really wont worry much about it.
By tha way, I am ready to screw tha armature plate back down on tha retainer. I was wondering because I noticed that the retainer kinda wobbles and will turn while tha armature plate is off. I just wanted to make sure that is normal and I assume that when I screw tha four phillips head screws back to it...That will tighen it back up and everything will be ok???? Yhanks, Imported FR... I always value your advice... Fishermanms

Re: Grease coming from shaft vent holes????

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Just for you, I just got home with a 5.5 that I just bought. Just kidding, I bought it a few days ago, just now got it home.

Looking at it, it has the same two holes that your 6 has, but again, they don't seem to go anywhere. Even if on yours for some reason the holes were to go clear through they would leak clean fuel mix from the crankcase, not grey grease. The only grease that should be present in the area is the lube for the armature plate retainer. Some people tend to get slap happy with that stuff. A thin smear is good, a glob is NOT better.

As for the retainer plate, the threaded aluminum plate will dance around loose in there till it is held in place by the armature plate. There is an upside-down possible with it though. It goes with the flat side up.

Re: Grease coming from shaft vent holes????

If it's old grease, maybe it's possible someone lubed a dead end. With a little heat, now it's seeping out.

Re: Grease coming from shaft vent holes????

Well good luck with that 5.5, and I feel much much relief about both the retainer plate and the grease. And I could not help but notice the HUGE, HUGE blob of grease someone had put there after I took a look after I took the flywheel and armature plate off. I cleaned most of it off. Thank yall for the information... I'm ready to put tha armature plate back on... My new float will be here friday, so I should be ready to crank this baby friday night and hopefully a lake test saturday. Once again, I really really appreciate all the help Yall have so kindly extented to me during this ordeal... I still gonna look for a 9.9 evinrude... Not discounting the 6, the 9.9 is what I was looking for to start with. I did just see a 9.5 for $350 in the TradeWinds the other day, but this lil 6 has really tore my pocketbook up! ( a local classified magazine that comes out once a week here in Mississippi.) And you can go on line to the Mississippi Market Bullentin and find just about anything you want there. The good thing is I have learned so much about used outboards and much more to learn here on this forum that will help me when making a decision on how much to invest.... Fishermanms