Ruh-Roh… a new gear case may be in order

[JimDirt]

That scratch is in the metal on the replacement piece, and it’s nowhere near the weld zone.

I read somewhere in this thread someone said they busted a skeg off used it for years and never noticed any difference

 

[Crosbyman]

skeg saver bolted on may... be a cheap alternative .. I never tried one mind you !

 

[JimDirt]

My neighbor came by yesterday and I told him what I would do if it was mine. He mentioned that bolt on thing. I thought that sounds like a good way to go. BTW he says he can get a brand new gear case ready to bolt on and go for $1200. I find that hard to believe. For my 40 E-Tec a new gear case is over $4000

 

[Chris1956]

Have you checked Sterndrive Engineering SEI? They make brand-new replacement gearcases for poplar outboards and outdrives. A new gearcase for my Merc V6 is $1195. They have some Johnnyrude gearcases as well.

 

[JimDirt]

I haven’t looked on SEI. I’m not really looking to buy a new one since I have everything to fix mine. If one was available for mine at $1200 I would have been on the water last summer LOL The price I saw for my gear case was on Crowley Marine

 

[JimDirt]

Update time. I’m getting close to bolting this back up. I thought I had posted this already. One day I spent a half hour trying to get the pinion onto the shaft and had to give up. Couple days later I nailed it in a few minutes. Got the nut on it with some thread locker on it.

 

[JimDirt]

So here it is. Seems to be in order, buuuuuuttt, I got water coming out where it isn’t supposed to be. Dammit!!! Idk if there’s a gasket back there or a water hose/ line that failed or what. Do these have freeze plugs? I wonder if over the winter that there was water trapped somewhere and it froze? Dang I hope not. This motor survived the winter of 24/25 that was much colder than last winter. Idk that I winterized it last winter but I did, over the course of the year, start it up 2 times just to get some fresh fuel/oil into the cylinders etc. With no lower unit on it, thus no water pump, I only let it for a minute or less, and blipped the throttle a couple of times. Idk if starting it like that damaged something? Any thoughts, ideas are welcomed.