Water in lower unit?

[kajnjim]

Re: Water in lower unit?

GOB, Priceless!

 

[blackwaterstout]

Re: Water in lower unit?

I was wondering about how to handle cleaning out the old gear lube. Never thought of diesel fuel. Makes sense though.<br /><br />Hey how much fluid does my gearcase hold?

 

[blackwaterstout]

Re: Water in lower unit?

When installing the driveshaft into the new seals should the driveshaft be lubed up with grease or gearlube? Or should it be dry?

 

[Goodoleboy]

Re: Water in lower unit?

Little grease wont hurt none. But be dang sure not to get any on the end of drive shaft. It will take thrust bearing right out in short time.<br /><br />The splined end that goes into power head!<br /><br />Good luck!

 

[blackwaterstout]

Re: Water in lower unit?

Thats good to know. I've heard that sometimes the driveshaft can get stuck or become seized in the powerhead and be difficult to dislodge. Can grease cause that? I know mine is okay because I just took it off 2 weeks ago, but would be good to know the do's and dont's for furure reference.

 

[Goodoleboy]

Re: Water in lower unit?

I beleive its a good idea to use a small amount of grease or antiseize compound on splines ONLY.<br /><br /> Be sure to wipe end of drive shaft clean before instaling back into power head.<br /><br />Good luck!

 

[blackwaterstout]

Re: Water in lower unit?

Holy crap! I changed the seals today and let me tell you those little boogers were a real pain to get out. I thought I could just pop them out with a screwdriver. No way. Took about an hour and a half to pop out those two old seals. Ended up using a small set set of crows feet. I had to be extra carefull not to gouge the liner though. It appears to have worked well.<br /><br />When we dropped the lower unit it was apparent that the driveshaft seal was the one leaking. All kind of gunk there on the seal and water pump. I was not able to get hhe impellor off of the driveshaft so I just pulled the driveshaft with the empeller still attached. Cleaned everything up, reinstalled things and filled it with fresh lube. Unfortunately I didn't have any deisel fuel to clean the gearcase out with but tried to flush it as best as I could with spray lubricant. Ran the motor for about 15 minutes in a tub and then checked the fluid. Looked a heck of a lot better. Stilla slight cloudiness to it but overall I could see through it ok. I assume that is caused by the residual crap that was left in the gearcase. We're gonna fish it tomorrow and check the oil again after that. Hopefully all is well.

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: Water in lower unit?

BWS, sounds like it might just be residual or even the effect of spray lube mixing.<br />One old way of checking for water in oil is to get a soldering iron and dip it in the oil: if it cracks and hisses then you have water in there. A bit of steel rod heated red hot will do just as good as a soldering iron.<br /><br />It sounds like you're close to finished with the problem though!

 

[blackwaterstout]

Re: Water in lower unit?

Great news. We took the boat out fishing yesterday and ran it pretty hard. Put another 15 miles on it. It ran flawlessly. Brought it back home and checked the gearcase lube and it was a nice crystal clear amber color! Whoo Hoo!. Replacing those driveshaft seals did the trick. It's a nice feeling to know that we did all of these repairs ourselves and probably saved hundreds of dollars by not paying a repairman for their time.<br /><br />With the motor running great now and no repairs scheduled on the horizon I plan on maintaining it and tuning it up on a regular basis. Hopefully it will last me a long time.