15 HP Drive Shaft Broken!

[Chris Miele]

Hello all. 15 HP Mercury OC255242

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=gv8mouu.7v4qyloe&Uy=3g05a9&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=1[/img]

I just put lots of money into the motor, to make it all nice an reliable. Runs great. I put a new prop shat on it also. Apparently, I put something together wrong because the drive shaft just failed. What would cause this sort of failure? More importantly, is my L/U junk?

Also of note, the thrust washer with the yellow coating on it that rides atop the pinion gear was badly worn. The guide tube was also completely melted away.

I may have used the boat under load for a total of 1 hour since the rebuild. The shaft showed little to no wear prior to the most recent assembly.

Maybe also of note, I am having some load distribution issues since I installed the SB1 Lifters on my 12 foot inflatable. Could this have stressed the unit to the point of failure?

Any guidance is appreciated, because I am feeling like my easy starting, good running rebuild is now all but worthless. :'(

Thanks guys,
chris

 

[deejaycee_2000]

Re: 15 HP Drive Shaft Broken!

Can i have that pic on a coffee mug please ... just jokes

you can get that fixed at a good welder .... sounds like you have a major overheating problem, make sure you have enough gear oil in the lower unit (if any) impellar working properly?

 

[Chris Miele]

Re: 15 HP Drive Shaft Broken!

yeah, talk about salt in the wounds.

motor is running cool as a cuke. new impeller.

what about the condition of the gearcase? does a removeable bearing fit in there or is the case itself the bearing?

 

[deejaycee_2000]

Re: 15 HP Drive Shaft Broken!

I see you mention above that you might have put it together wrong, do you have a manual? You will need to check every little thing in the lower unit to make sure it has been put together properly, cause at the moment you are getting major overheating there that caused that shaft to twist off like that, only time that happened to me was when the gear case oil in the lower unit looked like it turned into mud cause it was never changed ...... but that was my own stupidity ... if you don't have a manual, you will need to get one to guide you in putting it together properly .....