Yet another Alpha One leaking

[natemoore]

I got curious about the state of my lower unit lube after a several trips out onto Santa Rosa Sound. Milky oil!

I pulled the outdrive. No water or oil in the u-joint bellows. Short shaft seal is good.

I pressure tested the unit assembled. Saw bubbles coming out of the exhaust hub and up around the water pump. So I pulled the upper and lower unit apart and pressure tested individually.

Upper unit held 10 psi (highest on my gauge) for an hour w/o the loss of any psi. No soapy bubbles either.

Next, I tested the lower unit. No bubbles anywhere around the water pump. So, it appears that the leak is coming from somewhere in the propeller shaft housing. I did all the re-sealing myself except for the prop shaft seal since I didn't have the expensive tools needed. The one thing I "hired out" wasn't done correctly.

Take a look at the pictures. I think this is the carrier assembly down at the bottom where the bubbles are. It looks like I either have a cracked carrier assembly or the large o-ring at the back of the carrier is bad? If I'm able to fabricate a wrench to remove the retainer nut, can I just pull out the carrier and replace the seal and o-ring?

Just need a little help here. Promised my 14 year old daughter I'd take her fishing for redfish in Pensacola Bay soon.
Thanks

 

[m_87]

Re: Yet another Alpha One leaking

just use a hammer and a big punch to take out the retainer nut use 50/50 Automatic Transmission fluid mixed with acetone mix it well and spray it on the retainer nut come back 30 min later it should be easy to get off. if you mess up the retainer nut order a new one unless a local boat shop has it in stock but useing a hammer and punch is cheaper than that special tool even if you need to buy a new nut for like 20$ this is what i did and i could reuse the nut if i wanted to but i replaced it just cause. and yes there will be two seals on the prop end of that bearing housing and a big o-ring on the other end all need relplaced a great site for exploided views of your boat drive and engine as westmarine.com

https://www.westmarine.com/webapp/w...quiFA2os7kgUsaQ==&ddkey=http:SelocDisplayView

this will get you right to the engineand boat you have

 

[natemoore]

Re: Yet another Alpha One leaking

Good tip on removing the retainer nut. I was going to fabricate a tool using black pipe and scrap steel, but your idea is much easier. Hopefully, mine won't be that hard to remove since it was worked on less than six months ago.

Question: how do you re-torque to 250 ft-lbs when you reinstall w/o the special tool?