Question

[upnorth]

The lower unit on my "87" 70 Evinrude is taking on water. I am pretty sure the seals are shot. The real question I have is if I take off the lower unit an put the boat back outside for winter, am I going to hurt anything. And if I do that is there anything I should do to protect the rest of the motor?

I don't have time to really work on it now and I don't want to tie up a stall in the garage til I can.

[marine_man]

No, that should be just fine, but be sure to tape up any openings so nothing can crawl in and make a mess.

The other option is to replace your lower unit lube with fresh stuff and put the whole rig outside for the winter. Water won't get into your lower unit and you won't have a lower unit to kick around for the winter.

If you do take it off, I'd take it into the dealer (if you're not going to fix it) after the 1st of the year... they should have plenty of time to get it fixed and you'll be ready to go in spring right away.

marine_man

[sparcebag]

I'd take it apart,cover it with plastic or something that will hold up for winter and put it out.

Why not just wait till spring, early spring and repair it?

[upnorth]

I do plan on doing the work myself. My thinking is if I have it off, I have the whole winter to putz with it. If I wait til spring and I run into issues I don't have a lot of time to sort things out.

[Wildabeast]

I would grease up any exposed parts left on the motor, loosly plug up any holes to keep critters out and leave the motor down.