10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

Hi all. So I really opened up a can of worms trying to re-seal my lower unit myself. I got everything apart fine, but I managed to damage/destroy the bearing housing assembly under the water pump (#377186) while trying to remove its seal, and the seal still hasn't budged I even bought and used a seal puller. I need to get a replacement, which I have found online for $60 (ouch). I also need to remove the prop shaft seal, but its bearing housing looks pretty rough and gouged up from where PO have changed it in the past. I'm afraid to try and get it out myself for fear of damaging the bearing housing any further. I cannot find a replacement for it so I'm leery of messing with it. Not to mention the clutch dog which is a bit worn, but I think I can do the flip trick to see if it will help. Overall, I guess I'm just wondering when to say "when" on this LU. The motor itself runs like a champ, all the gears are perfect and I've cleaned everything so you can eat off it, so I guess I could part it out, but I'd like to try and get up and running, if at all possible. Plus, I'm afraid if I get and new LU online without being able to see it, I could be right back were I started from. Any advice or wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone for helping up to this point.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

I feel your pain. I have gotten some used motors for parts motors while scanning craigslist. It is often no more expensive to find an entire motor locally than ordering a lower unit on ebay- plus you have a motor to cannibalize when something else breaks.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

That driveshaft seal will be destroyed when removing it from the housing. I usually gently pry up at several locations to get it out. What did you do to the housing to damage it if the seal hasn't even come out? Not sure what you mean by bearing housing. I guess you mean the seal housing?

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

invert the seal housing and support it on 2 sides and try knocking the seal out from the back side with a small bladed screwdriver or awl, it the housing isn't too gouged up, some sealer on the outside of the new seal may fill them in well enough

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

I typically have to remove the seals in little bits and pieces, while being very careful to not damage the housing. It's not easy, but with a little patience, it's possible. When you pry on them with seal pullers, it's best to put something in between the puller and the housing, to protect the housing. What's really fun is removing the upper seal on one of the old 5.5/7.5's. Oh boy, what a venture that is.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

Know anybody that has a metal lathe? It is a piece of cake to chuck up those bearing housings and cut the seal out. I do them all the time.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

Thanks y'all. Glad to hear other folks have struggled with these guys. However, as fate would have it, I went and saw a great little, local country mechanic who just so happened to have a junk motor for me I was able to get and entire LU (housing, gears, drvieshaft and everything). I got it all for $50, and the rest of the motor is there if I need more bits on the future!!!! That's $15 less than the one part I needed and it has a better almost perfect clutch dog, which I also need, so I can take that too Guy at the shop sugested the same tricks/techniques for getting the seals out so I'll take it slow and try knocking them out from the backside and/or cut it out per the sugestions.
So now I have a whole new, albeit, good problem. The new LU came with a two blade prop and a "shock absorber" style drvieshaft. Should I use either of these new bits in place of my original/stock set up of a 3-blade prop with non-shock absorber (regular) driveshaft. The propes are the same diameter and basic size. The guy at the shop said that there is no appreciable difference between them in terms of performance and that the 2 blade prop is more weedless, which would be nice here in the swamps, rivers, and flats here in Fla. Any difference in the two? Any recommendations?
Let this be a lesson to us all to support our local shops, mechanics and tinkerers and to keep the faith and keep hunting. The internet is nice, but there's no substitute for knocking on doors and searching the junks piles for ourselves. Thanks again for all the help and tips y'all! iboats is the best!

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

The shock absorber was only used in the 5.5 and 7.5 I believe. The 5.5 definitely has a different sized driveshaft, I'm not sure about the 7.5. If it's a 2 blade prop, my guess is that it's off a 5.5. While I believe the LU will physically bolt up have you compared the driveshafts yet? And the shift rod is totally different in both LU's to the 10. BTW, what year 10hp is it?

And I have several 4 bolt 10's with no good LU's unfortunately. And they run fine also.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

The shock absorber was also in the first 6hp motors. Nevertheless, 5.5, 6, and 7.5 are totally incompatable with the 10hp. There is more to this story than we are being told.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

yeah. I double checked and the drive shafts are different btwn the shock absorber and regular shafts, so I'll just keep the orig set up. It's simpler and uses fewer parts, which is usually a good thing. I'm still debating the 2-blade vs. 3-balde prop. they use different propshafts so i can't just swap from one to the other on the fly :/ from what I've read, it shouldn't make that much of a difference on such a small motor. Does anyone have any experience (pro or con) either for or against a 2-balde prop? Are they really more weedless? Thanks again everyone! BTW the motor is a '61 QD-22 10 hp.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

The two blade that you are talking about is called semi-weedless. . I see you are a fellow Floridian, so might as well say it--there ain't no such animal as a weedless prop in FL. Not in our hayfields. However, some old motors could cope with it better than others. Unfortunatly, they were Mercs. That is until OMC came out with the thru-the-prop-hub exhaust lower units. Now we can blast through those weeds just as good as a Merc.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

We dont have a lot of weeds up here but how does the thru exhaust prop help to go thru the weeds?

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

I just used that to describe the newer shaped gearcase. It sheds weeds better. The prop really is only part of the problem. We may go 20 feet through all the growth and have a basket-sized gob of weeds shoving along ahead of the gearcase, hasn't even got to the prop yet.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

Ugh.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

Thanks again everyone. I agree "weedless" is a pipe dream here in Fla. I went on the lake the other day and I could almost walk across the surbface thanks to all the weeds...and that's in the middle of winter. I think I'll just keep my originals setup with the 3-blade prop and leave the donor LU as it came too. No need to tempt the boat motor gods with excess tinkering. I got the waterpump plate and clutch dog I needed, so I'm happy. The new dog is a bit worn, but it's better than the old one, so I'll cross my fingers and hope it works. In a weird sort of way, I'm glad this all happened. I've learned tons about my lower end and it's something I probably never would have messed with. The only thing left on my tinker to do list will be to take a powerhead apart one day, but I'll save that for another project and another time. Thanks again everyone for all the tips, help and patience. Now I'm just waiting on parts........Thanks again everyone.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

samo_ott said:

Ugh.

Click to expand...

Agreed...

http://forums.iboats.com/search.php?searchid=88477

YD.

Re: 10 hp Lower Unit drama continues..... When to say when?

Yacht Dr. said:

Agreed...

http://forums.iboats.com/search.php?searchid=88477

YD.

Click to expand...

That's a dead link.