The lakes here in the South are really low at the moment and even with due caution I still managed to strike a sandbar two weeks ago with my 195 BR Seaswirl. By the time I saw the sandbar rising from the deep I managed to throttle down and start to trim the outdrive up before hitting it at approx. 15 mph. The hull of the boat never hit the bar, only the skeg and prop (19 pitch alluminum). After the boat drifted off the sandbar I fired her back up and eased her into gear and right away I felt a terrible vibration throughout the boat so I stopped and changed out the prop with my spare (thank heavens for carrying one). She ran fine for the rest of the weekend and now this weekend just before launching her I noticed that some oil had accumulated in the housing area that the propshaft runs through before going into the lower gear unit. I hope I have described this area well enough for you to understand what I am talking about - as you can now tell I am not very mechanically minded. After cleaning up the approx. quarter ounce oil leak I checked the lower unit oil level and it was fine and the boat ran well all weekend long. When I arrived home I removed the prop to take a closer look to see if I could tell where the leak is coming from and I was able to see a slight amount of oil running out from the area behind the thrust washer where the shaft goes into the gear housing. I checked the oil level again and it does not look like it has dropped any since checking it previously. Folks - am I in any serious trouble here and have I done damage to something major in the lower unit?
