water in gearcase

[supercoolbabe]

I have a Johnson 2 hp 1972 50th year anniversery edition. Unfortunately, I trusted someone to use my motor now it has a problem with water in the lower gearcase. I have replaced the oils seals, grommets, impeller, head gasket, brand new bushing housing(gearcase head), o-ring and oil seal on it, cleaned all the jets and water tube, cleaned all surfaces where the connect and measured the correct amount of 80w90 oil. used a torque wrench to properly torque all bolts...and yet after I run the motor the oil continues to become milky. What else could he have ruined or sabotaged my poor motor? I runs great otherwise.

 

[orbanp]

Re: water in gearcase

Out drives are usually checked by pressurizing them to about 10 PSI air pressure, and it should hold the pressure.
If it is leaking you could check it by immersing the drive in water and watch where the bubbles are coming from.
You need to rig up something to apply air pressure to it. Do not over pressurize it, as it could blow some seals.

Peter

 

[supercoolbabe]

Re: water in gearcase

How do I rig something to apply air pressure?

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: water in gearcase

It's highly unlikely that the person you loaned the engine to had anything to do with this. There's really nothing that can be done to a lower unit, bar catastrophic damage, that would suddenly cause it to start leaking. One possible culprit could be fishing line wrapped around the prop shaft, which after some amount of time could damage a seal. Not replacing the filler plug seal when changing gear lube can invite trouble also. A bent propshaft could damage a seal, but that would probably be pretty evident because of excessive vibration that wasn't there before (not to mention the prop damage which it would have taken to cause the damage). Other than that gearcase seals will go bad through many hours of normal use, which is what I'd bet on.

 

[robert graham]

Re: water in gearcase

Pull the prop and inspect the prop shaft where the seal rides on it...may have warn a little groove in the prop shaft from 40 years of turning....might move or reverse seal so lip rides on a slightly different part of prop shaft....Check for any hairline cracks in lower unit around bearings and seals. I have an old 3HP Tanaka and had some very fine cracks welded up.

 

[boobie]

Re: water in gearcase

Take it to a dlr and have it pressure tested. That will take all the guess work out of it. Probably cost less than trying to build something yourself to do it.