Yankee_Bassman

You won't see the water come out separately; it will be emulsified with the oil. It turns the oil the coffee color you are describing. After sitting for three months, if there's water present, you MIGHT notice that the first bit of oil coming out the lower drain is slightly thinner than the oil on top, but the real clue is the coffee color. I'm not sure what the dealer means about oil "emulsifying" without water. "Emulsify" means two dissimilar liquids that usually stay separate when combined, will join together when vigorously mixed. Some will seperate again if left to stand long enough, like oil and vinegar shaken up in a salad dressing. Use a blender to mix the oil and vinegar, and it will take much longer to separate, and won't separate as dramatically as if only shaken by hand. The oil in your lower unit is unlikely to separate, because it has been so vigorously stirred by the action taking place in the lower gear housing. The dealer might mean that it will change color on its own, without water? It won't turn coffee colored, though. My .02 worth: if you can't find a friend who knows what to look for to check the oil for you after an outing or two on fresh oil, I'd get a pressure test done. It's dirt cheap compared to the cost of a new/rebuilt lower unit.

Avid, your memory brought back one of my own and made me laugh out loud....when I was 12 or so, my buddy and I would ride our bikes to fish a reclaimed trout pond that was once a gravel pit. A fast moving stream ran right behind it. From reading a Sports Afield, we got the idea to kick rocks over in the stream, looking for Hellgramites. We soon realized that we could be much more successful with a really fine mesh net barrier placed downstream, but, no money, and no real clue what to buy if we'd had the money.........mom had two sets of curtain "sheers" that hung under the drapes, one for Spring, and one for Fall.....I helped her put up the Spring sheers, and got a brainstorm......to this day, my mother still can't figure out why one of her sheers was missing the next Fall......

Being a Yankee, I always thought "crawfish" were fish bait, and "crawdads" were people food.....helps me rationalize when I'm pigging out on something I'd normally be buying with a dozen nightcrawlers......

From another of his posts: when i caught my 18 pound bass at waurika lake i was so excited and me and my fishing buddy were having a fishing contest and he was ahead by 11 pounds and it was getting dark and i through it out along the dam and wham he hit it and it was a hard fight and my heart was racing with excitement because i thought it was a decent size but when it turned out to be a 18 pounder i was really excited and i whooped up on my friend after word He has plenty of time to fish, because he clearly isn't wasting time in English class..... Seriously, I think this is somebody yankin' our chains..... Have mercy, guys...life is hard, and it must be even harder when you're stupid...

I haven't noticed that it's any better at one time or another. For spinnerbaits, I use chartreuse skirts with chartreuse blades almost exclusively; I try to get pumpkin or watermelon seed worms with chartreuse tails, and had terrific luck in the heat of August throwing those same color lizards with double chartreuse tails alongside lilypad beds and around boulders.

Gee, I'm sorry....I guess I misunderstood...I'll be sure not to intrude on you again.....

I'm not an Ike fan.....it's the screaming and yelling, not the tatoos or the break dancing....if I enjoyed screaming, I'd just hang around the house.....

On tour, KVD, Clunn, Klein.....honorable mention, Takahiro... and Al Linder and Bill Dance teach me something every time I watch them.

Close, Chris....they're actually Fleck spinnerbaits, and they're made by Lunker City......they make Sluggos and some other neat soft plastics, but the quality of their spinnerbaits stinks, IMHO...I bought three last summer, and had to replace the bearing on the blade on two of them with old ones from my parts pile. They just wouldn't turn. I saw him on a show say his favorite combo in New England was a chartreuse skirt with a chartreuse blade, and as a result, I've had good luck with that combo, just not with Flecks. If you still want to check them out, you can get them at www.lunkercity.com.

I watch it, but it's by no means a favorite....he is awfully tough on some of those guys. I'd lose so many points backing the trailer through the cones that it wouldn't matter what I did on the water.......

How long since the motor ran? The regular clear (yellowish) gear oil should come out looking like oil; if it looks like a coffee milk shake, it's because its emulsified with the water. If it's been sitting awhile, some water will begin to settle, and come out first, but it will never completely separate. You probably have either a bad shift seal, or a bad prop shaft seal. I'm not familiar with the "guts" of Yammies, but they may also have seals in the water pump (impeller housing) base. A pressure test can be done on the gear housing to determine which. You can pick up the pressure pump plumbers use to check the integrity of gas and water lines at a home center for short money. You can get fiittings to reduce it to the opening in your gearcase. I think the pressure you pump to is about ten pounds, but I don't remember for sure. If you're handy, get a Seloc or Clymer manual; it will tell you how to do the pressure test, and walk you through the replacement steps. One of the easiest ways for a prop shaft seal to get trashed is from fishing line wrapping around the shaft behind the prop. If there's any there, or if you've found some recently, suspect that. The shift seal is the easier job to do, and while you're in there, you can replace your impeller kit, since you'll have that exposed to get to the shift seal. I did a shift seal on my 85 HP last year. Piece of cake, following the manual's disassembly/assembly directions. They also had a couple of "tricks of the trade" that saved a lot of aggravation. In any event, whether you do your own repairs or send it out, when you get it back, use it for a short while, pull the boat, and drain the oil. If the problem isn't cured, the oil will have water again. The aggravation of checking beats the heck out of the cost of replacing a set of gears in a lower unit.

Forgot about that one...like watching fruit ripen. Maybe if somebody was catching trout from the stream in the background......

"Hey Yankee, I have DirecTV and they're on OLN at 4:00 am Central during the week." Screw 'em...I don't miss them THAT much .....lol, thanks for the info, I'll have to get the kids to set the VCR.....

Quick and dirty description: Remove all spark plugs. Screw compression testing guage into one cylinder, have a friend turn the motor over 4-5 times, record compression, reset guage, repeat on next cylinder, until all cylinders are checked. Depending on your motor, you may need to ground the spark plug wires to prevent damage to your ignition system. There is also a "wet" compression test, where oil is sprayed into each cylinder, to see if compression increases dramatically over "dry" test, indicating a "blow-by" condition. Techs also use "running" compression tests, and "leakdown" tests. There are a number of causes of low comression; I'd suggest you get a manual for your motor. It will explain not only how to do the test, but how to troubleshoot the results.

Get a Clymer or Seloc manual for your motor. You can order them from Amazon, or pick one up at West Marine or Boat USA. The manual will walk you through the process. BUT, I also would like to know why you think you need to replace it?

Madhouse, the only place we'll find a 9 lb smallie up this way is near a nuclear power plant outlet.....

I love the Lindners, even though there ain't a Walleye within reasonable driving distance of me.....but I really miss those two crazy Canadians that used to be on OLN until it turned into the "Survivor and Tour de France " channel, eh? OLN also has the absolute worst production values for hockey, ever...the local city cable channel does a better job taping high school games.....but I guess I digress....the Lindners fish real water, not private overstocked ponds ....every show is educational, packed with genuinely helpful tips, not "tie good knots" ......I don't get them anymore, or at least I can't find them on the TV, and I miss them boys, I truly do.......

Is it already decked with Plywood? You may be able to save the old braces to use as templates. Mark where they are in the boat before removing if they're rotted. Use the same thickness exterior grade plywood as is already there. I'd saturate it with polyester resin until it won't take any more. Don't forget the edges. If you decide to use pressure treated ply, forget the poly, it won't do any good. There are alternatives.... Starboard or similar products, Aluminum, etc., but they would be cost prohibitive, IMHO.

Check out this site for several links to vendors of decals and other older motor parts: http://www.vintageoutboard.com/OtherLinks/Links.html

LBH, I understand you perfectly.....but you need to throw in two "y'alls" and at least one reference each to grits, hush puppies and catfish if you want to be understood south of Joisey.....

I've tried it on a Cobra sit-on-top two person kayak. Didn't care for it, as I found it too tippy, and the back issues cited above plague me as well. My neighbor has one that came rigged for fishing. If I can catch up with him, I'll find out the brand. Meanwhile, check this out: http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/news/cobrakayaks/Mariner-XF_PR.htm

I've got a little elastic cord on mine; it's one of those thingys women use to tie a pony tail with. I got like six of them in a drugstore. for a buck or so. They will rot after a bit, or fall off, so I keep spares in the glove box of my truck. I loop the plug on the top of the steering wheel whenever it's out of the boat. That way, I see it before I leave the ramp, even if I've launched already, which I've only done once since using this practice. I have spotted it several times just before I almost launched, and I came up with the idea after about the third time I had to beach because of the stupid plug not remembering to put itself in the drain hole.

AMEN. The lake association at the lake I'm on in NH had a hearing scheduled to ban jet skis. Over half the people who came asked how they could get a HP limit on the lake. Several more wanted to ban all but electrics, and one idiot wanted no boats at all, as they "upset the loons" (they then went on about how many languages the loons speak in, leading all to believe there was at least one shore-based loon on the lake.) Point is, there's always somebody who wants to be a buzz-kill. I voted against the jet ski ban, even though I think they're a plague on society. It passed, but it's kind of a joke, since the manufacturers simply increased the size, and the new ones are outside the prohibited limits. I've seen a 4-seater. Like kbj, I call the Pond Cops, or flag them down when I see them. They're not at all shy about knocking on a door to discuss proper operation, even if they didn't see it. They're a pretty good bunch of guys in NH, only met one idiot in 40 years of boating up there.

By the way, any of you guys who responded to my response have an open invitation if ever in the Tampa Bay area to join me for huge redfish, snook, trout, cobia, or my personal favorite... bass on beautiful lake Tarpon. Lake Tarpon is one of the best bass lakes in the state, and in my back yard. Would love to meet some of the great people who use this forum. Thanks again and keep the lines tight!

I assume you want to be a bass pro because that is what you truly want to do, and you must believe you'd be happier doing that than whatever you do for a living now......in my experience, life is way too short to spend it doing something for a living that you don't want to do, and especially if you don't HAVE to do it....it sounds to me like you'll be going to WORK every day, and not real happy with your job. That ain't no way to live if you don't have to, my friend. I've been there and done that....I left a job most guys in my field would have given their right arm for, because I was miserable doing it. I made a lot less money for a long time, but I've never looked back, and I couldn't be happier. Do what makes you happy, and provides a lifestyle that you're comfortable with. Don't worry about what anybody else thinks is good for you. (Naturally, the assumption here is that if you have a family that depends on you, you'll obviously be able to meet your obligations to them as well.......). Good luck.