bad seal in lower?

[oh-u812?]

I have an 84 stringer 400 drive. It's trickling a little bit of gear lube from pee holes in my lower unit. I've attached a photo of the exact location. I was wondering if this is definitely going to be lower seals given it's location and if it is the lower seals, how much cussing is involved with resealing. Thanks.

 

[KaGee]

Re: bad seal in lower?

Pressure check the upper as well as the lower unit.

Make sure you disconnect the shift cable at the shift adapter, take about 2' of 5/8th ID rubber heater hose sealed off at one end, slide it over the shift cable and clamp it down air-tight. Otherwise you will get a false pressure check of the lower unit.

 

[oh-u812?]

Re: bad seal in lower?

Thanks. You wouldn't happen to have a 'how to" link to pressure testing this drive would you?

 

[oh-u812?]

Re: bad seal in lower?

bump

 

[oh-u812?]

Re: bad seal in lower?

bump

 

[KaGee]

Re: bad seal in lower?

A) Drain the oil
B) Replace the upper vent/fill screw and tighten
c) Make up a rig like this:

Consists of a bicycle pump, "T" fitting, inexpensive fuel/vacuum gauge, and a fitting robbed from a lower-unit fill kit. (NOT the plastic fitting!) You'll have about $20 invested.

D) Insert the fitting into the lower drain opening, make sure the fitting is sealed.
E) Pump up to 10-12lbs of pressure and watch the gauge. Manually spin the prop on the lower unit when testing it. If it holds pressure for a couple of hours , your good to go, if not... re-seal time. If you notice a quick drop, make sure all connections are tight... spray them with soapy water to check for air leaks.

 

[oh-u812?]

Re: bad seal in lower?

Thanks.

 

[oh-u812?]

Re: bad seal in lower?

Ok. Last night I drained the lube from my drive. When I went to open the the fill/check plug from the upper, it didn't feel like it was on very tight. Probably not tight enough to keep water from coming in. The lube up there looked worse than the stuff that came out of the lower. I plan on pressure testing it today. I was wondering if water entering through the top of that thing would cause the leaking of oil from that lower peehole? Incidently I the lube was leaking from the starboard side of the lower out of a tiny hole. I looked and there is no hole like it on the port side. My picture in my original post was incorrect. I am going to admit that I don't have a book and also am a habitual user of duct tape and have also abused JB weld in the past - please don't yell at me.

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: bad seal in lower?

I was wondering if water entering through the top of that thing would cause the leaking of oil from that lower peehole?

No - it would be less likely to leak elsewhere if the top plug is loose.