Uhoh read previous post and am now scared

"Well my weeeknd started so in

"Well my weeeknd started so innocently... I let a friend borrow my center console w/ a suzuki 2 stroke df-140 and while he was coming close to shore he hit a submerged object. He then shut the engine down, inspected it and notice a slight ding on one of the blades. He then ran the boat back to my house and everthing seemed ok. Later that afternoon he got stranded after running the boat at around 4500 rpms for 10 minutes or so. The boat was running fine and then the RPM's went thruought roof- he shut the engine down and I towed him in to shore. I removed the prop and then ran the engine in forward and then reverse. The shaft did not turn. In addtion, it also had a hard time starting which now really concerns me as I've read in one of the earlier posts that hitting a rock, etc can damage the timing. Also in the posts someome said insurance claim which really then scared me as it seems bloody serious now. I would have thought that hitting something submerged like that would result in maybe shearing the hub or some other safety mechanism.

So my questions are the following:
1) does it seem like i have serious lower end damage? I just spent 700 on rebuilding it last fall...
2) is there another "shear pin" or something of that nature that may have failed instead of the gears?
3) this timing problem- how exactly does that happen when you hit an object and how serious is it to repair??

many thanks for your input on this matter as I am fairly new to ouboards
dave"

If the shaft don't turn wh

If the shaft don't turn when shifting fwd or reverse that can be bad. Pull a sample of gear oil to see what it looks like. Your looking for metal in the oil. You wrote two stroke DF140. A DF140 is a four stroke?

"Thanks for the quick reply.

"Thanks for the quick reply. It is 1995 two stroke. Wow- now i'm scared. are we looking at new lower unit or is there a way i can buy a good used one. I'm planning on taking this thing to the shop if I can't perform any repairs myself- I bought the manual and have studied it but not sure if I can perform all the repairs myself. What really bothers me is that I jsut spent the 700 to repair the seals, etc on the lower end and they said everthing looked fine. Somewhat hesitant to take it back to the same shop...

thanks again- dave"

"Dave

I have seen gearcase

"Dave

I have seen gearcase's fail from what seem like a light impact. The gears are hardned and if impacted at excatly the right place they can fail. I have had two gearcases fail recently one was a DF300 very light prop damage next time out the pinion gear failed. Had a customer two weeks ago with a DF250 hit a rock backing up and split the pinion gear in two. First time I saw that! I have had other gearcases that should have failed and are still in service today.

Pull a sample of gear oil first. Can't point the finger till you have all the facts. Maybe someone didn't do there job correctly. You did admit hitting bottom or a rock. Make sure the gearcase has the correct amount of gear oil in it. Drain it into something clean you should have at least a quart of fluid. If it was low on gear oil it would fry the upper Drive Shaft brg and shear the Drive Shaft off. If it has a broken gearset you know what happened. I had a DT140 that someone took apart, resealed it and they left the thrust washer out of the top brg cap it didn't run long after that. Let me know what you find."

"If the gearcase is badly dama

"If the gearcase is badly damaged finding a good used one should be cheaper option than repairing yours. Installation is a simple procedure of a switcheroo. If your running a stainless prop and in and around shallow water and rocks an aluminum prop will help save from future gearcase damage....the prop won't fair very well from impacts, but they are cheaper to fix or replace."

"so I think I found a gear cas

"so I think I found a gear case for around 1200. However, before I invest themoney on a new one I am still concerned about the timing issue. In a previous post it was mentioned that the timing can be affected when the prop strikes a submerged object- I'm not sure about how this happens but it sounds scary too! The engine did have a hard time starting after the impact and usually starts right up when warm. After it started it then seemed to miss a bit as well. Obvioulsy I couldn't take it for a spin as the lower unit was bad however, I am concerned that after I drop 1500 I now have a timing issue and possilby more than that. This weekend I will break out the manual and attempt to check the timing but wanted to get others opinion on whether I may be in for a deeper repair than origianlly anticipated.
thanks again for all your input
dave"