In my recent experience, like you, mine didn't have a "slinger", and never did according to my service manual and observations while taking off the lower end. When I ordered a pump rebuild kit (impeller, gasket, seals), I noticed the slinger in the package. It also came with instruction on how to install the slinger. Ok. I'll deal with that when I do the rebuild I thought. First thing that I noticed was that I had the wrong kit because the gasket was way wrong (although I went to the dealership with my model # and serial #) So back I went and found that the correct kit did not have the slinger. This sounded correct to me because mine never had one. Nor did the service manual explosion diagram show one. There are apparently two different bottom ends for these motors. One requires a slinger and the other one doesn't. Also, the seals were very different from the wrong kit with the slinger compared to the correct kit without. The seals with the slinger were thick rubber bands. The one without were made of very thin Teflon or nylon, exactly what was on my boat originally. I'm the original owner as well so I know that this was factory condition. Bottom line here is make sure that you have the correct kit. I know that I wouldn't be adding parts to my motor that were not there from the factory. I'm sure (in fact I know) that you can install the slinger on your motor. There is room for it. But if it was not there in the first place, as you claim, is it necessary? Will it do damage rather than good? Those are the questions that I'd be asking myself.. Also, all of the parts that I dealt with were OEM.
