Posted by Turpin on 01/21/14 - 8:24 PM
#1
So in the fall, end of the season maintenance, I (as usual) changed my lower unit fluid only to find about an ounce of water in the gear case. Yesterday I finally did the inspection and found a very small portion of fishing line outside of the seal. I decided to remove the lower unit to get the seals checked/ replaced and I was also going to change the water pump.
Tragedy #1 was breaking the 7/16 bolt off in the rear of the lower unit.
Tragedy #2 was removing the water pump to find a broken bolt on the upper seal/bearing housing, still not sure how that broke and it had obviously been like for a long time.
The (I guess) lucky side of this story, I carried my heap of problems to my local mechanic and had a lengthy discussion over my options. We pressure tested the lower unit and to my surprise it held pressure fine (so I'll be keeping a close look at that).
The broken bolt in the exhaust housing was a whole challenge of its own.
I drilled, soaked, heated and beat on it but no luck so it got drilled out and re-threaded(and of course it was broken flush so options were limited). The broken bolt in the bearing housing will just have to stay broken as there's a fair amount of corrosion so I'm guessing the other 2 bolts would surely ring off and i'm going to let my chips ride on the pressure test and more frequent fluid checks.
All in all today sucked.
Edited by Phil T on 01/22/14 - 12:26 PM
Posted by sraab928 on 01/22/14 - 4:45 AM
#2
Doesn't sound like fun at all, but you got through it. - Been there - done that. It could have been much worse. (beats having to put a new motor on)