How to fix lower unit? Help Please

[ChadASX]

Saturday I fished with friend of mine and before we left I happened to look at his lower unit and there was a 1/4 inch gap in between the lower unit and the mid section on his 2000 Rude 225. 4 of the 5 bolts had fell out. If not for the torque tab the last bolt would have been out and the lower unit would have fallen off. We went to the dealer and got some more bolts and then went fishing. 2 of the 4 bolts we put back in it didn't hold very well, both on the left side. He called me a few minutes ago and he went fishing again today and the left 2 were gone again. The vibration from being lose has enlarged the holes in the aluminum and the bolts won't tighten up at all now. What can be done to fix this? Tap it out to a bigger size or have the holes filled and drilled back out. What do you all think would be the best fix? Thanks for the help.

[Jason Phillips]

JB WELD WILL HOLD IT!!!

Just kidding. I wouldn't try that. Well, my question is there has to be something causing that kind of vibration. Those bolts don't just fall out. Has he hit anything (he may not know he did) that could have bent the propshaft or something else? I'm afraid that if there is some investigating done, a couple of lost bolts are going to be the least of the problems.

Maybe I'm wrong, but they don't just fall out. If you just want the holes repaired, I'd say fill them in, then redrill them. If you make the holes larger, you are going to weaken the entire unit.

[ChadASX]

We already found that problem. Bent prop. It wasn't very noticable the way it bent. We think this is causing the vibration to do it. There wasn't any vibration in the boat, I guess there sure was in the motor though. It was obviously run at least once being very loose at the midsection. Do you think there could be internal damage somewhere that should be looked at also. Everything else seems fine but things are not always what they appear. We think now that the prop was what was causing a performance loss also. It had lost about 500 rpm's and 5 or 6 MPH. You have to really look at the blade angles on the prop to tell the one blade is out of wack. I never seen one bend like this one, there's not even a scuff on the prop. Its a 26 raker. Do regular boat mechanics fill and redrill the holes or do you need to find a machine shop to do this type repair? This is a new one for me, I've never heard of this problem and don't have a clue.

[Jason Phillips]

Alright. Now that we know that, let's get to what will probably be bad news. A Stainless Steel prop is pretty hard. 9 times out of 10, if you have hit something hard enough to bend a Stainless prop, you have also warped something else. The shafts and gears have such tight clearance specifications, even the smallest bump could cause major problems. It may not happen next week or next month, but if something's out of round, it will eventually come apart.

I'd take it to a marine mechanic and let them check everything. If everything is ok, they should be able to repair the holes also. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to go ahead and check with the insurance company. There have been many posts on here where people thought they had just bent a prop when there was really much more damage.

Hope this helps.

[RUSTY63]

I agree, have everything checked, especially the gear case, there is a alignment tool to see if the case is distorted.

Look closely at the pinion gear, you are looking for small cracks on the back of three of the gear teeth.

On the bolt holes in the midsection, check them closely for cracks, if you don't see any cracks you could have Heli coils installed, this should eliminate that problem.

[ChadASX]

Thanks for all the info guys. That was another one of the decisions he was trying to make was if he should just turn it in to his insurance and have everything gone through or just fix the bolts and the prop and go. Sounds to me better off in the long run to just tear it down and take a looksy. I know I wouldn't want my lower unit going out a month down the road after this. We've looked at the bolt holes in the mid section very good when we put the first bolts back in it, no cracks there. So that is good. What gets me is there is no sign on either the lower unit or prop where it hit a thing. It still all looks new. The lower unit is actually still under warranty because it was replaced a few months ago. He has used the boat very little since all that was replaced and can not figure out what he done to do the damage. What do you tell the insurance in a case like that? I had to have hit something but I don't know when or where and it didn't leave a mark, just bent a prop blade slightly. Seems this could raise some questions from them.

[SEAHORSE]

Also have the mechanic put a dial indicator on the propshaft and see if it is over 0.002" out of round. The propshaft bearings should be checked as they take a beating if a prop or a shaft is bent.

[Jason Phillips]

You said he just had the lower unit replaced..........why? Could the prop have gotten bent before the new lower unit? If so, he could be on his way toward another lower unit going out.

[ChadASX]

The lower unit is new because a little over a year ago he smacked a huge log floating just under the water and did 16,000 worth of damage to boat and motor. That lower unit was completely destroyed. The replacement lower unit, new one not rebuilt, didn't last through the year warranty. Was running down the river, motor revved and hit the limiter and it was toast. I don't remember now why that one failed. It was replaced with another new lower unit which is the one he's got now. The prop was replaced after the accident with the tree in the water with a new Raker. This motor has had a history of lower units going out even before he hit the tree. Between when he bought it in 2000 and the time he hit the tree I think he had 4 lower units replaced under warranty. This was during the time period that I'd heard about Rude having problems with their lower units. I had some problems during the same time with mine but not like he had. Twice back then I was fishing with him in team tourneys and we got stranded out with the lower unit going out. Could there be something the mechanics are missing that could be causing all the lower unit trouble he's had in the past. Also if it helps 2 years ago the motor was rebuilt, guide pin on one of the rings popped out and took out that cylinder and then last year the rebuilt powerhead blew and Bomb paid for a new powerhead to go on it. So this engine has cost Evinrude a lot of money on warranty claims. Lucky for him he had the extended warranty on it. They have been great about taking care of everything for him though.

[SEAHORSE]

With that many gearcase problems, the midsection may be "gorked" out of shape causing the l/u problems.

Are these Bombardier new gearcases being used, or aftermarket new gearcases?

[THE WITCHDOCTOR]

Or he might be running the plate so high that the carriere is coming loose.......

[ChadASX]

On the gear cases I know at least some of them were new gear cases, a couple of them could have been rebuilt. For the most part except that one, the gearcases that were going out were all several years ago. I really think that was just a string of bad cases as I knew of others that had the same problems then, myself included. Slap one on and it wouldn't make it no time and it was out.

I talked to him again this morning and he said the most recent gearcase that went out the mecanic told him it looked like his motor was idleing too high and when he was putting it in gear it was grinding one of the gears. The motor wasn't running too high though and the mechanic said it must have been a weak gear. And of course the gear case before that was destroyed in the tree collision.

That was a serious impact there and the midsection wasn't replaced. But he only had the one lower unit fail since then. The one on there now is the one that is just loose and can't tighten it up right. He's taking it in to the shop today and telling them to tear it down and check it out. The guy doing it is one of the best Evinrude guys in this area, no he is the best in this area by far, so if theres a problem he'll find it. The boat is a 21 Stratos so the motor is pretty deep in the water, no way its being run too high. Thanks again for all the help guys. This place is great.