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How would a prop shaft break by just driving in the main channel?

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Georgiaboy67

Advanced Contributor
For those who are reading my previous posts or have contributed will prob know by now I'm getting an SEI gearcase for my 97 evinrude 115. I'm skeptic on SEI, I've read a lot of good, and been told a lot of good things from owners and sellers,and read some bad reviews. (There's always a bad egg in a batch at some point) the two most common bad reviews I've read on them is A: the owner drains the oil and it's real milky and covered with metal chips, and B: they are driving and all of a sudden the prop shaft snaps and they lose the prop... how would the prop shaft just snap like that without hitting anything?
 
Where I used to work some of the engineering drawings now have another note on the bottom.------" no material scourced from China to be used in the manufacture of this part "------------Materials all look the same but they are not the same.
 
Explains from what I read then. I've seen the owner pop up time and time again on these forums saying they have some parts from china, some parts from the U.S. And I do know everything is assembled down in Tampa. Sadly the "parts from china" are not listed specifically. For all I know one thing is made in the U.S and the rest is all Chinese..
 
they are driving and all of a sudden the prop shaft snaps and they lose the prop... how would the prop shaft just snap like that without hitting anything?
Click to expand...
Wrong/worn thrust washer and improper nut torque.....
 
Well I had an SEI lower unit on my Johnson 150. Hit a submerged rock. Bent my stainless prop up & bent the prop shaft. Didn't break anything. It took one heck of a whack too. I'd say if they were prone to just snapping off, that would have done it. They replaced the whole unit under the warranty. One thing I found out. The O-rings that came with the last unit for drain & fill plugs where not the correct one's. Bay Marine replaced them with the proper O-rings. Make sure to check those when you do get a new unit from them. Only issue I ever had with an SEI lower.
 
Well I hope I also get one of the good units. Bay marine has had my boat for 3 weeks now... definitely getting a bit frustrated with that. And if something happens to the foot my fault or not that means I have to wait another 2+ weeks for them.
 
Good marine repair shops still do not have a ---" drive through , fix me up now lane "------------Not the same as getting your fix at the yellow arches !
 
It was a 2.5 week wait... I had dropped it back off just over 3 weeks ago. I was getting the powerhead looked at, wasn't going back to Gwinnett marine unless the powerhead was bad, they called this past Tuesday. Saying all was good. Did a leak down test.. said they'd have it all ready next week. They had a foot in stock thankfully
 
I have to be careful with them as I only have two decent shops that will work on evinrude... and I've already been up and over with one...
 
Finally got the boat back today.. found a bit of blue grease right outside the water intake screen on the right side. looked like grease,smelled like grease. Must be grease.. should this raise any concern? They cranked it and shifted on ear muffs and said it was doing well.

https://instagram.com/p/BQq9P09gI8W/
so tiny I'm not sure how my eye caught this if anyone asks lol..
 
Probably nothing to worry about. Most likely just some grease that got on the engine from the shop. Unless you're saying it appears that the grease is coming from inside the water intake screen on the lower unit? Only issue there is water goes in through that screen, not out. No water flow out.
 
Yeah, I just installed my new unit from SEI yesterday. Only took me about an hour. The biggest pain was getting the damn water pump on correctly. You gotta make sure the plastic "key" stays in place on the drive shift when you slide the pump impeller and housing down onto it. Otherwise, it went pretty well. Ran it on the muffs, & ran just fine. Good water stream coming out. I've gotta break this new one in too. Not really sure I want to go out just yet though. Allatoona is still pretty low water level. Good luck dude. If you need anything, you've got my cell number in the PM i sent you awhile back.
 
My grandma has a house on lake guntersville and I've fished there all my life. Pretty sad how much pressure it gets now the bass fishing has dropped dramatically in the last few years. Anyway my buddy and I planned on taking a trip to gville but I'd like to have my gearcase broken in before I make it up to gville. My key ignition switch is bad.. I'll need a hand with that. Not sure how to take it apart. When I push the key in the insert gets stuck. Hopefully the rain holds off some tomorrow so I can start running this sei
 
Its pretty easy to replace that ignition. Just unscrew that large black nut at the back of where the key goes in & pull the ignition out, slowly. There will be several wires attached to the back of it. If I remember right, they are color coded. Just unplug one wire at a time from the back of the old unit, and plug into the new unit. That way you don't get confused about which wire goes where. I'll be happy to help you though, if you want? Bay should be able to order you a new one. Thats who I got mine from two years ago. New one should come with that lanyard and U shaped lock pictured above this reply from one of the other members. Looks just like the one I got.
 
Yeah I'm gonna get one soon. And yeah I ran it on the muffs today decided I felt like resting on my day off. Shifted smoother then ever. When you say no water flow out, do you mean that when I take the muffs off or the boat out of the water I shouldn't see any water come out from that water intake screen at the bottom? I never paid attention before now but After I turned the motor off I pulled the muffs off and water was coming out of the screen.
 
Yeah, the water pump in the lower unit only sucks water up and into the engine to cool it through those screens on the lower unit. The water is then expelled from the spray that you see coming out the back of the motor. Only time water will come out of those screens is when you turn the motor off, and the water that was inside the lower unit before the water pump, will flow out. Otherwise, when the engine is running, water is only flowing in, not out of the screens.
 
Yeah I definitely don't wanna deal with what happens when water is coming out while the motor is running. Definitely wouldn't run very long. Lol, it pumped a good stream out the pee hole. They said my impeller had a few knicks in it, so they just put a new pump in. Really like the atmosphere and the employees at bay. Shoulda gone with them with the powerhead too.
 
I was just in there today picking up a bolt I lost for the fin on the bottom side of the lower unit I just replaced Sunday. Somehow I misplaced the original bolt. Spoke to Terry about your boat. He is super helpful. They know me by name now, I've been in there so much.
 
Yeah they all know me too.. Jody never remembers my last name. I've never seen a boat shop as helpful as Terry or anyone else at bay marine
 
I would agree with you. Everyone there is very nice, and very helpful. Terry has always given me free advice on how to fix most of my issues myself.
 
Roger that johnny, and yeah Dave it's real crazy too cause I actually just got a job at bay marine! I told them I wanted to learn how to be a boat mechanic and was willing to do whatever it took to get my foot in the door. I'm real nervous yet real excited cause I've been fascinated with boats all my life and I'm always willing to learn something new on fixing stuff.
 
Made it to allatoona today for the beginning of the break in process of my sei gearcase. Put just over an hour on it today, so far so good. Still doesn't wanna shift real good. It was doing this on the old lower unit. It would engage in forward and reverse just fine, but trying to come from forward to neutral the shifter doesn't click into neutral at times, have to wiggle it front to back to get it to disengage..
 
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