Mercury 500 50 HP leaking oil and reverse gear problem

phabej

Cadet
Joined
Jul 19, 2011
Messages
20
Hi,

I'm new to this forum and this is the first time I owned a boat and have very little knowledge about it. My cousin gave me an old Mercury 500 50 HP boat and I have no idea what year it is as I cannot find indication any where showing the year of the boat. Anyway, I have three issues and needed your help.

First, when I ran the motor the other day with the water hose going into it, there were some milky stuff coming out from between the area (gap) where the lower unit is attached to upper unit. I'm thinking this might be the lower unit oil leaking out. What could be the cause of this leakage and is it something easy to fix?

Second, water is also squirting from the gap between the lower unit that is attached to the upper unit. Is there suppose to be a gasket that seals this gap to keep water from leaking out? Does this mean the gasket is bad? Where can I find a replacement gasket?

Finally, when shifting the throttle to reverse gear, the propeller would not spin when give it gas. However, shifting it to forward and give it gas, the propeller spins fine. Does this mean the reverse gear is massed up? Is this something that can be easily fix? or do I have to take it to the dealer? Thanks for the help in advance.
 

hotrod53

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 16, 2009
Messages
508
Re: Mercury 500 50 HP leaking oil and reverse gear problem

There should be an identification tag on the transom mount facing forward between the transom clamp bolts.

Sounds lke someone improperly installed your lower unit. There is a water pipe that connects at the lower unit and feeds the upper part. If you're not getting water to the top, do not run it, it will melt down!. The motor is older, you really need to pull the lower unit and change the impeller and find out whats going on in there. You may have lower unit problems from the description, or just assembled wrong. Either way, don't toast your power head over it. Milky oil, that sound suspicious as well.
 
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