'04 Evinrude 200 - Upper crank seal?

[Cricket Too]

Boat got pulled out for winter this weekend, I had the engine covers off to winterize and noticed a bunch of grease looked like it was slung onto some hoses and wires behind the flywheel of the starboard engine. Looked underneath the flywheel and saw it was pretty greasy under there. When I swipe my finger across it, it is thick, almost like wheel bearing grease. It's all over the stator windings too, the normal bright yellow string on the windings is now all gray. Is my upper crank seal leaking?

See pics. The last one is the port engine for comparison, you can see how clean it is.

 

[sutor623]

If you rock the flywheel back and forth does the upper bearing seem to have any play? Maybe pull the flywheel and see if there is any oil mixture coming from where the crank meets the bearing retainer? Need to pull the flywheel anyways to clean up the electronics and magnets under there......

 

[Cricket Too]

Thanks sutor. I went out and shook the flywheel side to side and then front to back and I thought I could feel a very, very slight movement when I pushed and pulled side to side, none when I did front to back. I tried on the port motor also and couldn't feel anything in any direction.

Is there an allowable limit or is any play, even very slight play, enough to damage the seal? If it needs a bearing and seal, any idea of the cost to have that done?

 

[sutor623]

Well, a very, VERY little bit of play side to side is normal. BUT, the fact that the port motor didn't have any play gets me concerned about the play.

The upper bearing and seal replacement is not a terrible job. Have to pull, the flywheel, stator and then the retainer plate and bearing assembly. Plate can be a real PITA to get off when the crankcase is still together, and is even hard to get back down with the new seals. I haven't worked on anything newer than late 90's so I am not sure if your upper bearing and seals can be replaced without splitting the crankcase, but I believe they can.

If you DO end up finding that your bearing is bad, you need to check the recirculation system. Particularly the check valve and hoses that run from lower to upper cylinder, and the check valves. Very possible there would be a lubrication issue up top that would cause that bearing to wear prematurely.

Of course, this is all speculation............

 

[Cricket Too]

Thanks sutor. I had to really shake it, use a lot of might and I could still barely feel it. I checked the upper recirc line when I was in there as well, should've mentioned that. It wasn't loose or cracked in any way, but that doesn't mean it was working correctly.

It'll have to be a Spring project as the boat is wrapped now. Just trying to get an idea of what I'm in for in the Spring.

Thanks.

 

[sutor623]

Sure thing man. Good luck. Maybe someone else can chime in and has a better idea where that grease/oil could be coming from......

 

[Faztbullet]

This is a ficht motor as no timer base and CPS markings on flywheel. Look like stator or rectifier may have a problem and melted encapsulation and that's what your seeing. Also in picture #2 the magnet is broken and shifted on flywheel....

 

[racerone]

Based on the above information it might be a good idea to sort this out now.----Or perhaps it might cost big $$$ or half of next season.

 

[Cricket Too]

Faztbullet, correct...technically a Ficht. Originally I thought maybe something in the stator had melted, but I've never seen a melted one before so I wasn't sure what it would look like. The stuff that was flung onto the wiring/hoses behind the flywheel looked to be slightly brownish in color and it's thick and sticky, like a glue. See attached pic. This and the fact that all of the "grease" underneath the flywheel is semi sticky/greasy/thicker rather than oily, made me think it wasn't 2 stroke oil. Also I'm not even sure how much oil would even leak out of an upper crank seal as these engines oil pretty precisely at certain spots and it's not like a carbed motor where there is oil mix just flinging around in there everywhere. This wasn't like this at the beginning of the season and the boat was only used 22hrs this season...for unforseen reasons.

As far as the magnet looking broken and shifted, I assume you mean the one with the yellow wire on it? It does look like it slipped down a bit, I hadn't noticed that until you mentioned it. Is that a good indication that the stator may be melting? This engine charges 2 batteries, a house and a starting battery. The Port engine charges just the starting battery for the port engine. Both engines were/are charging completely normally.

 

[Cricket Too]

Anyone else ever seen the top of an engine get this oily/greasy? Any idea?