Motor "Discoveries"
 

So I'm officially regretting not knowing more about outboard motors when I bought my boat.

As part of my first winterizing process this week, I checked the lower unit oil by popping the lower plug and letting a little pour out into a cup I had laying around. Solid milky gray...

It's not necessarily a terrible discovery, since i never checked the oil when I bought the boat, so I don't know if this has ever been changed. The stupidity of the situation is that I wait until the coldest snap in November in recent memory to make this discovery.

So now I have plans to flush a couple quarts of lower unit oil through the LU tomorrow and run it on muffs in the yard in between flushes to see if this is a seal problem, or just a case of old oil.

To make matters a tiny bit worse, there's metal dust in the oil... but it's the powder, not flecks... so again, I'm hoping it's just old oil that collected grindings from typical wear.

Wish me luck? Here's to draining oil in cold-arse temps! It's like waiting for honey to run off a spoon!

I should have known when I bought the boat that I'd need a barn... time to go house shopping :)

BOATS!
tarp and a hair dryer around the lower unit may loosen up the oil,
Milky gray ? Not good
Be careful, muffs and in gear! Trash barrel may be safer..

Good luck, shade tree mechanic

What?
Yami 115 has a hose adaptor. Why are you using muffs?

pi ....... I hink ya still need muffs to run it ,isn,t the adapter only to flush it ><

No, Mike. I run my motor every spring with the hose attached. I checked with the Yami dealer quite a few years ago and he said that's what they do.

Because it's a Johnson 150 OceanPro :P
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Hmmmmm, interesting...

I have that hose adaptor on my Optimax...

wonder if I can do the same. Have to check with my local Merc mechanic and see what the difference might be if any.

Remove the prop then remove the lower unit.
Sounds like it need seals replaced anyway.
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So I'm an outboard novice, but a very mechanically inclined individual... how difficult is that as a DIY job?

For benchmarking sake: The only thing I've ever disassembled and not been able to put back together better than I found it was a shimano conventional reel...
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Running it on muffs won't tell you anything about the shaft seal, you need to be in the water for that.

sealing the lower unit is not difficult... it does require a few techniques and special tools..

Easiest way to find the exact problem is to drop the lower unit...drain the oil and make an adapter to pressurize the lower unit.. 3-6psi is plenty ( use a regulator)... remove the water pump so you can observe the seals.... with the L.U. pressurized... spray soapy water ( a few drops of dish detergent works well in a spray bottle).. spray the prop[ shaft... shift shaft and drive shaft... the leak will appear as a foamy bubble where the problem exists...

Boat is going into storage on Saturday, will an outboard that sits in a covered area for the winter with the LU removed suffer issues? Maybe just lather a healthy dose of grease on virgin metal areas?

That would be the ideal scenario for me because it would let me take a longer term approach to the project.
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Itll tell me if it's the water pump seal right?
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Regardless of what the dealer told you, the yamaha manuals clearly state NOT to run the engine on the flushing port. There is the possibility of too little water to th impeller and burning it out.

Not saying it will cause instant death or the world to end... just that yamaha specifically says NOT to do it even though many do and have no issues.

perfectly fine to do that...we used to pull some of them so they wouldn't get stolen during the winter...just cover it so no little critter makes a home inside the exhaust tube...if you are not going to work on it immediately... drain and refill with fresh oil... otherwise you risk the water separating out of the oil and freezing as well as rusting the bearings.

Interesting. I have never run it for long but when I start up in the Spring I run it for a couple of minutes. Of course, I change the entire water pump assembly including the impeller every year so maybe that's why I have never had a problem.

The flush port is just that, a flush port and not intended to run the motor.
Can you run using it, if you are replacing the water pump assembly every year, as that bitch Hillary says, “What difference does it make”
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Already drained it and replaced it. Trying to get it out on the water Thursday to see if the oil gets contaminated. Hoping this west blow stays down through mid day Thursday or the sound will be a washing machine
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sounds like tomorrow is the better of days / til around Tuesday >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I,ll be out if anyone is going >,

Don't remind me
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Got out yesterday... oil is cloudy... lower unit coming off tonight

While it's off, how about a new water pump?

Figured you needed something else to fix.. ;-)

That was already included because I figured that gasket would need to get pulled... and I wouldn’t be surprised if that impeller is fried.

I’m a bit scared about what I’ll find when I pull the LU apart... but better to find it in my garage in January than in the middle of LIS in June
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Not need to be fearful...make a stand to hold the lower unit while you work on it...get a book...I buy my parts on line from Boats . Net. .these,are,OEM parts at discount prices..there are not alot of difficult assemblies in the lower unit
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Thanks for the words of encouragement! What I was mainly alluding to was my fear that the very gray fluid that slipped out when I first drained the cavity is foreshadowing gears in a very rough condition. In order to find that out, I have to do a bit more surgery than I’d prefer to do the seals on the top of the unit.

The saving grace is that if I pull it apart and find that the gears are in bad shape, at least I can rebuild it and be confident in the motor for next season.

Only time will tell at this point... I’ll probably end up posting pictures
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Potentially dumb question: I just dropped the LU and realized I forgot to run the motor dry. Anyone ever hooked a hose to the water pump feed tube and turned the hose on? I’d just want to do it long enough to run the gas out of the carbs and the line between my fuel separator and motor
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I'd pop the Lu back on.... you'd hate to F something up to save 30 min or so.

So I’ve gone the opposite direction... seal kits got here today. I’m going to try to do everything except the bearing carrier seals and possibly get out on the water this weekend. Hoping the pressure test with the upper seals and water pump replacements holds.

I figure if it doesn’t, I don’t have to do the upper seals again to get at the lower.

The only way you guys can change my mind is if you think that the lack of lower unit lubrication might have worn the gears, and I should disassemble the gears to make sure the teeth are intact.

I won’t be heartbroken if I have to put her away this Saturday :)
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