Busted Pinion Gear

[RICK8370HP]

I was logged in awhile ago haven't been here for awhile <br />Thanks for all the help in the past.<br />Here's my issue<br />Heading down the river full throttle all of a sudden engine stops propelling and just screams at full throttle. Dead in the water no forward no reverse.<br />Anyway get towed to the nearest dock and call the motor mechanic I bought the motor off 78 days before. 1800 fricken dollars. Little ticked by this time seeing as this is the third time I'm dead in the water.<br />After a little argument we decide I'm going to bring it down to him so he can have a look.<br />Pull the lower unit plug ...metal on the end.<br />Okay so now I'm thinking big bucks.<br />He tells me possibly shifter linkage let go.<br />I'm thinking better than gears. <br />I leave the lower unit and he calls me 3 days later and tells me it's the pinion gear and it split up the middle, which he thought was strange. After 28 years of doing this he has never seen this break in this way. First question is this a common way for these gears to fail.<br />Second he tells me Pinion gears are only sold in sets with the forward gears. Is this true.<br />He says he has the forward gears and I 'll have to buy the Pinion for $150.00(cdn) from some guy that's willing to separate the parts. Is this the right price for this gear or am I getting shafted. <br />Thanks again guys for all the help

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Busted Pinion Gear

Rick.... He has the forward gear? You'll be getting the pinion elsewhere? That's obviously not a matched set..... therefore it is mismatched!<br /><br />What is the model number of your engine? You did not say what it is so we have no idea what year your 70hp is. We're assuming you have either a Evinrude or Johnson... which one?

 

[RICK8370HP]

Re: Busted Pinion Gear

Johnson

 

[RICK8370HP]

Re: Busted Pinion Gear

sorry <br />1983 70HP Johnson

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Busted Pinion Gear

Rick.... I was going to check out that unit for you in the parts book. However, the 1983 70hp Johnson incorporates two different lower units, one for the 15" long shaft, and one for the 20" long shaft. The inner components are not interchangable.<br /><br />Which length engine do you have?<br /><br />To save space on this site for this misc info, feel free to contact me at my address below.

 

[Joe Reeves]

Re: Busted Pinion Gear

The forward gear and pinon are a matched set, that is the two gears are actually broke in together machine wise so that their teeth are matched perfectly. Installing gears that do not match results in of course a mismatch. One may be lucky with a mismatched set of gears but if not, the results will prove to be expensive.<br /><br />The original OMC part number for the matched set of gears for your engine is 389964, but that number is superceeded up to 397338. A estimate of the latest list price for the set would be around $256.00.<br /><br />Now, even having the matched set, the pinion gear must be installed on the driveshaft prior to being assembled into the lower unit and checked with a special tool to determine which shims to install. Failure to do this could result in too much (or too little) space between the teeth of the pinion and forward gear.<br /><br />You've mentioned that the seller seems to suggest that you've caused the failure. That doesn't sound logical to me unless you've had the lower unit apart, and I assume you haven't. It would be my guess that someone had it apart prior to your ownership of it and failed to torque the pinion gear retaining nut to factory specifications.<br /><br />However, whoever is at fault could be decided by flipping a coin (as in unknown) but I do wish you luck.

 

[RICK8370HP]

Re: Busted Pinion Gear

Thanks again Joe<br />Hey if anyone nows any info re: acquiring this gear set for my motor I would greatly appreciate it.<br />83 70hp Johnson 20" longshaft