SX-M outdrive grinding sound ???

[T2fjdude]

Hi folks. Long story short, I was having issues with my 4.3 gl not starting after a sudden stop on the water. I get the thing running, only to discover the outdrive had a really loud clunky noise in neutral. I rebuilt the engine myself and installed the outdrive. The input shat spun freely. So, I pulled the outdrive back off to to make sure the engine internals were gtg, and the motor ran perfectly. However, the input shaft seems to be locked up now; I can't spin it by hand. I am new to boats, nut is this a bad upper unit? Can I fix this? Or do I need to replan ether whole thing? This is what is sounds like now. Its kind of hard to hear in the video. https://youtu.be/pn6xnFJ_4Aw

 

[Grub54891]

Did you check the oil in the drive? I bet the drive is shot. I'll follow along till we find out what happend, I'd like to know also.

 

[T2fjdude]

I actually changed to oil recently. But it did sit for the last year.

 

[T2fjdude]

So, I took apart the upper unit, and it looks like the pinion bearing had a complete failure. all of the rollers were still in there, as well as the cage. After checking all of the gears, there was no damage to the upper and lower. So, I flushed it multiple times and have a new bearing on the way. I think this will be the fix. The pro spins freely if I rotate the tower shaft with a speed handle. Fingers crossed I can get her back in the water next weekend. I will post some pictures of the damage and repair. Thanks guys!