OMC Stringer 800 drive shaft condition and lower gear case seal question

[MrMilbe]

1) I'm in the process of restoring an OMC 800 outdrive. Do you think that drive shaft has still some life left or should I rather spend the 120$ for a new one, now that I have it open anyhow. It is the one that goes into the water pump housing. I'd think the splines have a little bit more than 60% of their original width left, but I'm afraid that at some point the wear down increases drastically.

2) Does someone know if that white sealant is original or what the previous owner might have fixed with it? Its the in the upper section of the lower gear case. Also that black large rubber ring on the outside is broken and it was not part of the gasket&seal kit. Does someone know if that's a problem? It doesn't look like a part of the gear oil / water barrier.

 

[Dr Diik]

I would do the shaft myself. I just got through replacing one that stripped out and left me stranded on a lake when it happened.

 

[southkogs]

Sealant in the water pump is recommended in the manual, but not like in your photo. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

That shaft should still work. But with the stringer it's hard to tell for how long. You could go for next to ever on 'em, or strip it out tomorrow. They are kinda' an achilles heel.

 

[kenny nunez]

OMC recommended #2 Permatex to seal the water pump housing ,plate And the bolts. The idea of sealer around the swivel bearing was to prevent granualar expansion from cracking the exhaust housing.
I hope that you plan on replacing the pinion shaft also if you decide to replace the water pump shaft.

 

[Scott Danforth]

looks like a new set of shafts is needed along with a seal kit

 

[MrMilbe]

Thanks for all the input. Yeah, I got the seal kits for upper and lower housing, 4 different sealants and threat locks mentioned in the repair manual and a new pinion shaft ( that one surprisingly looked worse, the water pump shaft might have been replaced already). The only thing that's not in the seal kit it that big black rubber ring on the picture.

I got both manuals cymer & seloc. They are not going in detail about the water pump and pinion shaft repair( the seloc just states water pump should not been repaired but replaced completely). Sterndrive.info has a couple good videos, the only thing that's unclear to me is the process of shimming they used. They use a torque wrench instead of that special shimming tool. Here at 5:50 http://www.sterndrive.info/newsletter_105.html . I thought the shims adjust how those 2 big gears between pinion and ball gear shaft engage.

 

[Scott Danforth]

get a factory manual. the clymer and seloc manuals are used to wipe up pooh after you run out of toilet paper.

https://outboardbooks.com/

 

[MrMilbe]

Awesome, thx. That's what I was looking for but only found the Seloc and Cymer. After receiving them I had to find out that they were not very detailed.

15$ incl. shipping on ebay, what a steal