Not my day, lower unit

[luckydude]

Came home, stuck the engines in the 50 gallon horse troughs, ran 'em for 15. Dumped the troughs, put the engines back down to drain, went to wash the boat. Got done with that, did _not_ do the required walk around for any time you move the boat, backed it up with the main engine down and the fin scraping, probably dragged thing over 200 feet of asphalt.

How screwed am I?

And don't tell coastside, they like to laugh at me, I come here in hopes of help (it's OK, you can laugh a little, I like you guys).

 

[Alweidner]

My thoughts are that as long as it didn't damage the bracket, it's only the lower unit. I've drug many of my lower units through the sand and the shallows of South Jersey. Good luck and let us know how you make out

 

[luckydude]

My thoughts are that as long as it didn't damage the bracket, it's only the lower unit. I've drug many of my lower units through the sand and the shallows of South Jersey. Good luck and let us know how you make out

I'm new, what is the "the bracket"? All I did was grind some metal off the fin. The fin at the bottom of the engine.

 

[Alweidner]

I was speaking of the motor mounts onto the transom/bracket. You should be fine. The bottom of that sceg has a lot of metal before it gets to anything that holds fluid.

 

[luckydude]

I was speaking of the motor mounts onto the transom/bracket. You should be fine. The bottom of that sceg has a lot of metal before it gets to anything that holds fluid.

Yeah, it was the fin. Should I try and paint that?

 

[Alweidner]

Yeah, it was the fin. Should I try and paint that?

I went online and found a can of spray paint matched a little 25 hp motor that we have on our 13 foot whaler. I just painted it so it doesn't look torn up but it doesn't really affect anything. It's more of an appearance thing

 

[glacierbaze]

You say backed up, and then you say dragged. How much of the 200 feet was backing, and how much going forward? How bad did the pavement look? Dragging will mostly hurt your pride, backing can be expensive if the skeg digs in.

 

[Paul_A]

The backing part had to be noisy. I drug one once across a concrete sidewalk.

Scccccccccccccccccc...

Ugh. Is why I like my current setup. Skeg is a good 6" above the drive when the trailer is hooked up.

 

[PointedRose]

If you didn’t knock off a piece of the skeg or damage the prop, it’ll be fine. You’ll want to smooth it out and paint it.
There’s a CA guy in Galt that posts ads for this service on Craigslist


Outboard Skeg Repair


https://sacramento.craigslist.org/bpo/d/galt-outboard-skeg-repair/7349805724.html

 

[Hookup1]

Skegs are "expendable". For about $150 each a good shop will weld new ones on.

 

[wrxhoon]

If you only went forward I would say the damage is only superficial . Check to make sure no cracks on the lower unit and no cracks on the outboard mounting bracket .
If the only damage is scrapes on the skeg , file it smooth . If you want to paint it you can use a spray can. If you need a perfect job any body shop can make it perfect and paint match it.

 

[seasick]

worn off tip of sked is not an issue other than cosmetic. A bent skeg is another story. The sked is a lot more likely to wear than the bracket is likely to get damaged.
The paint is also cosmetic for the most part, many skegs you see will have bare edges due to scraping bottom.
Regarding costs to repair, I had a broken skeg on a merc l150 in 2019. The shop recommended not to replace the missing piece since the remaining section had a slight bend and instead fabricated a new skeg and welded it onto the main body of the shaft housing. It came out great. In my case, the cost was $275. I did not have to replace seals in the LU , I just did my normal ol change and pressure test.

 

[luckydude]

You say backed up, and then you say dragged. How much of the 200 feet was backing, and how much going forward? How bad did the pavement look? Dragging will mostly hurt your pride, backing can be expensive if the skeg digs in.

Backing didn't dig in, I had it set so it was just barely touching the pavement, it was when I turned the corner and the angles changed, going forward dug in a bit. Seems like I may have dodged a bullet. I'll go look at the bracket today but I think it is fine.

 

[Doc Stressor]

You got off light.

 

[luckydude]

Holy smoke, Doc, that's insane. I maybe ground off the paint on the bottom of the fin, nothing like that. That's a big ouch.

 

[seasick]

I suspect that that LU is low on oil

 

[luckydude]

So I looked again, it didn't dig in going backwards, the bracket is fine, I think I got really lucky. And I have two new rules:

A) I don't care how short a time it has been, walk around the boat *every* time you move it.
B) Don't ask for trouble, if the main engine is down to drain, stand there, let it drain, put it back up.

Maybe 3 new rules:

C) Don't get cocky, that is the fastest path to something bad happening. (I wasn't cocky, I was lazy, violated (A)).

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

You got off light.

View attachment 21962

That will buff out. no problem ....

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

So I looked again, it didn't dig in going backwards, the bracket is fine, I think I got really lucky. And I have two new rules:

A) I don't care how short a time it has been, walk around the boat *every* time you move it.
B) Don't ask for trouble, if the main engine is down to drain, stand there, let it drain, put it back up.

Maybe 3 new rules:

C) Don't get cocky, that is the fastest path to something bad happening. (I wasn't cocky, I was lazy, violated (A)).

Well, you're name after all is luckydude . We all make mistakes brother . it's great to hear it's not that bad. .

 

[luckydude]

Well, you're name after all is luckydude . We all make mistakes brother . it's great to hear it's not that bad. .

I go by luckydude because I got lucky and made some money in tech. Not a huge amount but enough that I retired at 54. I used to think it was all my doing, I'm a pretty good engineer, 100Mbit ethernet is a thing because of me, I've done a bunch of stuff, but as I got older I realized that all the work I did was required but it was not what made me money, luck made me money. There are plenty of people who have worked every bit as hard as I did and didn't get anywhere. You need to be the right dude in the right place at the right time. That's why I'm lucky.