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Need help with lower unit leak. 92 Johnson 140 V4 Looper.

S

Smgbad

Member
1992 johnson 140 looper (v4). Got out there to do some maintenance today, and decided to run the engine a bit on the muffs since it's been a couple of weeks and I didn't fog it yet this winter. In my haste, I completely forgot to turn on the ON lever at the muffs and ended up running it for about 1-2 minutes without any water going through it. Once I realized my blunder, I turned them on and had a good tell-tale stream so I figured all was well. A few minutes later I start seeing milky oil sludging out from the little vents just above the AV plate.

I was actually about to change the oil, slap on a new prop (with some new grease on the shaft), and change the impeller, casing, and gasket anyways later on this month, but now I'm guessing I've blown at least one seal. Any ideas on which seals I should go ahead and purchase before taking it all apart, and is it all easily accessable? Never done an impeller change out before and wasn't planning on doing seals too... No idea as to the difficulty level for a backyard enthusiast. Links to any vids would be AWESOME... Also other than draining what may be left of the current oil, what kind of cleanup will be necessary if the oil and water mixed? Thx all!
 
Well you have melted the impeller and water pump housing.----Install a factory pump kit.----Pressure test lower unit.----You may have damaged oil seals as well.
 
racerone said:
Well you have melted the impeller and water pump housing.----Install a factory pump kit.----Pressure test lower unit.----You may have damaged oil seals as well.
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Thx for the reply racerone. Do the shift and drive rod seals come with the pump kit? If not, are they hard to replace when doing the impeller job or does a bunch of other stuff have to come apart?
 
Ouch....sorry for that. See parts 7 and 8. As Racer said....look for melting, that will indicate that those seals got hot too. Hope you didn't cause any powerhead damage.
 
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timguy said:
Ouch....sorry for that. See parts 7 and 8. As Racer said....look for melting, that will indicate that those seals got hot too. Hope you didn't cause any powerhead damage.
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I don't think I did. I ran it for about 15 minutes or so after I ran it with no one ater and the pee stream was strong. If not for the sludge coming out of those slits above the AV, of have thought I lucked out as the motor itself ran fine. Although one gent said it was not the oil, but unburnt gas mixing with the exhaust... If that is the case, (and yes, I'll be replacing the water pump assembly and o rings anyways), does that mean I also have a problem elsewhere causing that sludge?
 
???----Yes parts #7 & 8 are the driveshaft seals.-----You may want to consider doing a compression test.----Working on your first outboard motor ?----You may want to consider hiring a shop for these issues.----Mistakes will be expensive.
 
Yes...unburned fuel/oil in the exhaust has been mistaken for lower unit leak, I get that in here alot. I could be changing shaft seals like gangbusters, but a pressure and vacuum test will define or determine my repairs. Many shops will take advantage of their customers on unneeded lower unit seal repair. VRO's will dump oil into the motor when it's stored, then the poor customer will be fooled into lower unit seal replacement. In your case, a visual exam of the shaft seal/seals, may define your direction here, but a lower unit pressure/vacuum test, while excercising shafts....will find your leak....if you really have one. VRO's, (variable ratio oiling), is a great thing.....but often times they are damaged with ethanol fuel and condemned because of poorly engineered venting caps on the oil reservoir.
 
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