Water in lower unit of outboard...

just a seal probably, a place called Broderick Repair south end Bismarck west of Airport Express by Dakota Communications on Basin Ave. 701.223. 1172 sent a # of people there and all have been happy.

 I 2nd Broderick Repair==Rodney is a great guy and reasonable.

I need a new prop seal too.  What's a reasonable price?  I did my own on my old crestliner, but don't want to mess with it on my new boat.

I drain my lower unit yearly and have had some years where there is a trace of milky but very limited....The next year it would be fine......Any ideas??

solocam Said:
I drain my lower unit yearly and have had some years where there is a trace of milky but very limited....The next year it would be fine......Any ideas??

I've had the same thing happen. It has always been when fishing line got caught in the prop. I think that is when the seal might let in a little water. If the seal doesn't get ripped I just change the fluid and keep checking it. As long as no more fishing line gets tangled in there again I haven't had any problems.

The prop shaft seal is always suspect when there is water in the lower unit however one time a few years ago I thought my shaft seal was leaking but before changing it I pressure tested the lower unit and it ended up being the drain plug gasket weeping. Never hurts to check that first, you should always install a new gasket every time you change the oil and if you haven't it could be the gasket which is a lot cheaper to replace than the shaft seal.

solocam Said:
I drain my lower unit yearly and have had some years where there is a trace of milky but very limited....The next year it would be fine......Any ideas??

Me too.  How many dead heads did you hit?

Moritz in bismarck is a great place to take a boat. Very reasonable pricing and fast service.

 Moritz service sucks. Maybe if you bought your boat there they might be OK but if you didn't forget it. I have had to go there a few times in the past and getting them to help me was like pulling teeth. One of the main reasons I didn't buy a Ranger was cause I would eventually have to deal with them. I wont do it.

 Try Jeff at Jeff's Outboards in Mandan.

simmsjs Said:
 Moritz service sucks. Maybe if you bought your boat there they might be OK but if you didn't forget it.

Hell, I couldn't even buy a boat from them.  After hanging around for 45 minutes on the day I had decided to buy a brand new Alumacraft, I couldn't even get the time of day from any of the 5 or 6 people working.  And that was even after having a parts guy announce over the loud speaker that I needed help.

Oh well, it saved me about $10k as I finally went with a used Lund out of MN..



As far as the on again, off again water in the lower unit.  Good question as I have seen it on my Yamaha as well.  Once I blamed a bunch of braid I found on the river, other time I wasn't sure.  Either way, never a bad idea to just change the seals if you find water in the lower unit.  I've done a couple in life, now I am too lazy and just pay River City.

I hit a sandbar on the river pretty hard this fall, That could have done it. How much does it usually run to have seals replaced in a motor? This is an early 90's 100hp merc 2 stroke.

It's either the lower end seal inside the "hub" or "bullet" whatever they call it . I've fixed both seal's myself on mine its a 96 force 120 2 stroke, its fairly easy. Otherwise its prollygonna costyou at least. 200- 300 bucks prolly 

 Russ over at Boat Worx in Mandan, right by FedEx

I second Boatworx. When I called around to get some lower unit work done Russ did it for half the price of what MoritZ wanted to do it.