lower unit "locked up"

[ithateme]

My '92 Force 150 died suddenly in the water, at full speed. The mechanic is asking if it's "locked up." If I put it in gear, it clunks and the prop won't move. Can someone explain what's happening, in general terms? I see a lot of rebuilt lower units for sale. what decisions am I going to be making, repair versus replace?

 

[12Footer]

Re: lower unit "locked up"

Welcome to iboats, and sorry your debut was over such a situation. If you cannot turn it over in gear, it probably ate the gears in the lower unit.<br />So we need to do some things forst to determine the extent of the damage.<br /><br />1. If you can turn it over in nuetral, run a compression test. This will let you know the basic condition of the powerhead, and rule-out or confirm problems in the l/u or elsewhere.<br /><br />2.Drain the l/u and inspect the lube that came out of it for metal.<br /><br />If the powerhead is low on compression on any one or more of it's cylinders, you might as well part her out---not worth repair.<br />If it has great compression, all else is worth procedingh to three....<br />3. Drop the l/u and rebuild/replace.