First, a slight background, and hopefully assistance on remedies for several problems.<br /><br />I have a '64 40 HP Evinrude BIG Twin.<br /><br />Last year, after finally getting things running nicely, I smacked the prop into something. Bent the propeller good enough to justify replacing it, so I did.<br /><br />It was sometime thereafter (hard to tell when since I only get the boat in the water a few times a year) that I noticed several problems.<br /><br />The first, was water in the lower unit. I'd checked the fluid in seasons past, and the seal was fine...but I'm sure the impact led to the leak. I've removed my lower unit, and am wondering if there is anything other than the spaghetti seal, and the O-ring and rubber washer that contacts the prop shaft, that seals water out of the lower unit (as I'd like to replace everything suspect, all at once). I already replaced the impeller, and the water tube seals seemed fine.<br /><br />But now, the real issue, and perhaps somehow maybe affected by the water intrusion?<br /><br />Now, when I accelerate hard, I notice that the engine "skips" (for lack of a better description). But, when you get to full WOT, it "usually" runs just fine...at least, it initially did (seems to be getting worse).<br /><br />The way I describe it, is that when humming along, it's almost the feeling coming from the engine that you've briefly run into something, that the motor skips a beat (and whether it's mechanical or electrical, I'm not sure).<br /><br />When idling, there doesn't seem to be any issue...but when you are cruising, basically the whole boat (aluminum runabout), just shakes for a moment. Sort of disconcerting, but it is intermittent, and it does keep running...these "irregularities" are for only a fraction of a second. They don't happen all the time, and are sort of hard to force...but you just know, the boat is gonna shake sometime sooner than later.<br /><br />I was thinking, that since this happened sometime after the prop running aground, that I boogered up something in the gears of the lower unit...I also figured I had to pull it apart anyway to reseal things.<br /><br />So, for better or worse, it looks like all is intact down there...I was really thinking I'd find a broken tooth or something, to explain the skip...but now since things look fine, that leaves me to think that maybe this mechanical feeling problem lies elsewhere.<br /><br />The points and coils look fine...but the plug wires certainly do not, and they are next on my list of parts to replace to hopefully fix this problem.<br /><br />So, I guess my question would be, could bad plug wires w/ cracked insulation, just coincidentally be giving way to the problem described?<br /><br />The motor never cuts out, basically gets you across the pond w/ out stopping, but you just know something isn't right, escpecially when accelerating or towing.<br /><br />I know I should've replaced the wires when I had the flywheel off...but given the boat itself is 200 miles away, and used only 6 times a year (when it works), I've been on the cheap side of fixing one issue at a time, rather than go broke on something that might go kaput for good any day.<br /><br />Basically, judging from the fact that nothing but water pours out even after a short run and freshly replaced gear lube, the last several runs have been done w/ fresh pond water doing the lubricating...better than nothing, and hopefully an explanation as well as to why it hasn't been running right.<br /><br />Sorry for the length of the post, just trying to tackle what's at hand now that it's starting to come apart. Thanks.