Possible lower unit damage?

[Mwilson18]

I have a bass boat with a 150hp outboard. Last season I had to do a tear down on the lower unit and reseal the gear case after I noticed water dripping out of the gear oil drain screw. After I did the reseal, the boat ran great for the whole summer. There was no sign of water getting into the oil when I changed out the fluid when I was winterizing. “Amazing” I said.
Fast forward to today, I was driving the boat down to the pond and hit a pot hole and it sounded like the outboard’s skag bottomed out on the pavement. I kept making my way down to the pond, and when I got there I noticed that gear case oil was slowly dripping from around the prop so I called off my fishing day and took the boat back home. Now ,after having it sitting back in the garage, it has dripped about a cup of oil onto the floor. I don’t see any cracking on the lower unit housing, but I’m suspecting something internally is damaged. What is your feeling on this?

 

[Chris1956]

Drain it and pressure test it. That is the only way to know for sure.

Put a bicycle pump onto your gear oil pump fitting and give it a few pumps. Leaking should be obvious

 

[Mwilson18]

Drain it and pressure test it. That is the only way to know for sure.

Put a bicycle pump onto your gear oil pump fitting and give it a few pumps. Leaking should be obvious.

Okay, I’ll give it a shot thank you

 

[racerone]

Sounds normal to me.----Did you winterize with a lot of storage oil ?-----Oil that sat in the exhaust housing and now leaked out ?

 

[Mwilson18]

Sounds normal to me.----Did you winterize with a lot of storage oil ?-----Oil that sat in the exhaust housing and now leaked out ?

Yes, when I winterized I pumped new oil in from the bottom fill screw until it came out of the top screw. But I’m confused on your comment, shouldn’t the oil not be able to leak out in any way?

 

[racerone]

edited

 

[Mwilson18]

Okay, I’ll give it a shot thank you

Drain it and pressure test it. That is the only way to know for sure.

Put a bicycle pump onto your gear oil pump fitting and give it a few pumps. Leaking should be obvious

I also just did the pressure test and when pumping 20 PSI into the gear case, after about 5 seconds I can hear hissing coming out of the area behind the prop. Is this a sign of a leak?

 

[Mwilson18]

???----Not the gear oil.-----The storage oil if you fogged the motor !

Ohhh, I understand now. It wasn’t storage oil that was leaking out. It was definitely green gear oil.

 

[racerone]

Model # of this motor ?----Sounds like prop shaft bearing carrier is cracked.

 

[Mwilson18]

Model # of this motor ?----Sounds like prop shaft bearing carrier is cracked.

Its a Johnson J150GLER

 

[racerone]

Bearing carrier is easy to pull out for inspection.

 

[Mwilson18]

Bearing carrier is easy to pull out for inspection.

That’s my next issue, I’m trying to get the bearing carrier out but my gear puller is having a hard time getting it out.

 

[racerone]

Salt water motor ?-----Removed the 2 bolts and tabs ?------Are you using the 2 threaded holes to pull it out ?

 

[Mwilson18]

Salt water motor ?-----Removed the 2 bolts and tabs ?------Are you using the 2 threaded holes to pull it out ?

Freshwater only motor and yes removed the 2 retaining bolts and am pulling with 2 long threaded rods screwed into the threaded holes with my gear puller. The puller just wants to spin off of my prop shaft because of the amount of force it’s needing

 

[Mwilson18]

Salt water motor ?-----Removed the 2 bolts and tabs ?------Are you using the 2 threaded holes to pull it out ?

At this point I’m thinking of just buying a used lower unit and replacing completely. I’ve found a few used online that would be worth the money. How do I tell what size shaft it is? Is it a measurement of the actual driveshaft? I’ve removed my lower unit, here’s a picture

 

[racerone]

That motor was built with an L for long shaft ( 20" transom ) and with XL ( 25" transom ) .-----And no the 20" and 25" are NOT the length of the shaft.-----A proper seller would know , list / identify what you are looking for.

 

[Mwilson18]

At this point I’m thinking of just buying a used lower unit and replacing completely. I’ve found a few used online that would be worth the money. How do I tell what size shaft it is? Is it a measurement of the actual driveshaft? I’ve removed my lower unit, here’s a picture

That motor was built with an L for long shaft ( 20" transom ) and with XL ( 25" transom ) .-----And no the 20" and 25" are NOT the length of the shaft.-----A proper seller would know , list / identify what you are looking for.

Okay, thank you

 

[Chris1956]

You might check out SEI. They make new gearcases for a few more $ than a used one.

When you resealed your gearcase did you not replace the propshaft seal? That could be leaking. Also, 20PSI is pretty high. Does she leak at 5 PSI?

 

[Mwilson18]

You might check out SEI. They make new gearcases for a few more $ than a used one.

When you resealed your gearcase did you not replace the propshaft seal? That could be leaking. Also, 20PSI is pretty high. Does she leak at 5 PSI?

I did see they had some good prices for new lower units, I might go that route instead. And yes I did put a new seal on the prop shaft as well as new seals on the bearing carrier.
I’ll have to test a lower PSI

 

[racerone]

With some soapy water you should be able to find the leak.