0:00
Hey everybody, it's Technicians Tuesday, and today's video is going to be all the tips and tricks you should know about for when it comes time to changing outboard prop shaft seals without removing the bearing carrier
0:24
Now this can't be done on every single outboard lower unit, but this works for most of them, with the exception of a lot of
0:29
lot of mercury lowers. Make sure you're subscribed for more helpful videos and let's get started
0:36
Now it's a basic test to be performed whenever you encounter water in the gear loop during a service
0:41
but a pressure test will expose the location of a leak in the lower and you know that today we are
0:46
going to be focused on a leak at the prop shaft seals. So there are basically three ways of doing
0:52
these seals. You can remove the bearing carrier, which we won't today. You can use the old drywall
0:58
screw trick or we can pull them out using a seal puller
1:03
Let's go over the drywall screw method first. Now it's super important to use screws that have a nice, pointy tip on them with a good thread
1:11
on the bottom to really grip into the seal and to make it through the seal easily
1:17
Then what we want to do is stick the screw in the middle of the seal and then holding
1:21
the impact inward toward the prop shaft, get the screw started in the seal so that it goes directly
1:27
straight down and then we want to put another screw on the opposite side of the seal
1:35
Now it's crucial that the screws go straight down because if they are pointed inward toward
1:40
the prop shaft they can scratch the prop shaft and at that point that prop shaft is potentially
1:45
going to be trashed if it has a scratch on the inside of where the seal rides
1:51
It will basically never seal and will always be leaking, causing a huge issue which is probably
1:57
why most people don like doing this because you have to be extremely careful or you can create a big problem I got a couple of tricks to show you though on how to possibly seal a scratch prop shaft here later on in the video Now once the screws are
2:12
in we'll just take two flat bars and pry up evenly on both screws at the same time
2:17
while pushing the bars inward toward the prop shaft to keep the screws coming up straight. Then just
2:23
work the seals up. For this particular gear case here someone has put the seals in back
2:30
backwards with the bottom seal having the lips facing in. Normally both seals don't come out
2:36
at the same time and Yamaha installs their seals with both of the lips facing out. This is something
2:42
that you can do to try and seal a gear case that has a scratch on the prop shaft by flipping
2:47
the inner seal inward to see if it will hold pressure, which sometimes it does work. Normally though
2:54
the seals come out one at a time and as you can see here, sometimes the screw will also tear
3:00
out of the seal but we'll just relocate it next to the hole and try again. Then we can
3:05
pry it out and the same process applies for getting the bottom seal out
3:42
the tips just barely sticking out, just looking at how these screws are in the seal
3:56
we want to have the tips just barely sticking out, just like this. It will help to keep them from pushing in against the prop shaft and scratching it
4:05
Now for the next method which is probably a lot safer depending on who is performing the work we be using a smaller straight tip flathead screwdriver and we will drive the tip of the screwdriver into the outside of the seal here in between the carrier and the seal
4:21
Then we can turn the screwdriver and bend the metal lip in, but not too far
4:26
We don't want the metal lip to hit the prop shaft. We'll do this at four points around the seal to get the tension off of the seal
4:37
and now we can take a seal puller and pull up on the metal lips that we pushed in
5:02
working our way around the seal to pry up where we can get the seal to pry up where we can get
5:07
under it and pull it off. We'll do the same thing for the bottom seal with the four different
5:12
sides of the seal and then pry it up until we get it to come out of the carrier
5:20
This way we can hopefully avoid hitting the prop shaft and damaging it where the seal rides
5:29
causing the gear case to leak and costing a ton of money. Once the seals are out of the carrier
5:35
we still need to put the new ones in. We want to take a razor blade or a piece of high-grit emery cloth
5:41
and clean off all the build-up that's on the prop shaft and around the carrier
5:45
looking for any kind of nicks or damage that might be on the shaft. With everything cleaned out, we can blow all the dirt and stuff out with some air
5:54
or some contact cleaner and we'll be ready to install the new seals
5:59
I like to use some gasket sealing compound when putting the seals in
6:03
It helps them to go in smoothly and also, seals them up around the sides where the carrier sometimes corrodes. Then we will be using a piece
6:10
of PVC pipe to push the seals down into the carrier Now another little trick that might help if you got some scratches or nicks on the prop shaft what you can do is take an O ring and place it in between the seals when installing them
6:23
I've seen this seal up a couple of pretty bad lowers before
6:27
I've also seen three seals installed as well, and that actually worked too
6:32
So what we'll do is just put the compound around the outside of the seal and then drop it down onto the prop shaft
6:38
Then using the PVC pipe, just push the seal down until it seats all the way down
6:42
all the way down. Then we'll clean off the excess sealant and then take some grease and wipe
6:48
it in there to help and prolong the life of the spring that keeps the tension on the seal. We'll
6:53
clean that up and if you're using the O ring, just make sure it fits snug and press it down
6:58
onto the seal. Stick the outside seal on and push it down into the carrier
7:18
Then don't forget to grease up the seal before installing the thrust washer and propeller
7:23
Now that's going to finish out another day here on this week's Technicians Tuesday
7:27
Now we'd love to hear about which method you prefer in the comments section below
7:32
Or if you know of another trick or another way, hook us up. We'd all love to learn about it
7:38
We'll be back on the Ocean Master next week, so if you're ready to start cutting out that
7:42
transom, give us a thumbs up. If you're here because you needed to change out your Prop-Shaff seals, you'll want to get
7:48
subscribed to the channel and check out some of our other videos, including our ongoing
7:53
project boat where we are restoring a 1992-23-23 foot. Ocean Master, including the replacement of the transom and installing a brand new fuel tank
8:03
We've got even more helpful articles on our website at born againboating.com
8:08
Thank you for hanging out with us today. And as always, guys, enjoy your Tuesday night and we look forward to seeing you next week
