Was working on a 20 mile run monday and the motor started making a noise like something was inside with the prop causing it to try to stall. Only does this in forwards, had to use reverse to get back. Passing angler said it was probably clutch pin.

Model year of motor is 1993.

Questions:

1. Is this person correct based on the presented info?

2. Is a clutch pin something that can be fixed by someone with some patience and time?

3. If answer to 1 or 2 is no, how expensive to fix?

4. Is it worth fixing?

I can't answer questions 1 thru 3, but yes on #4. I wouldn't care to run in reverse all the time....

You could pull it apart and check it but if there are any hard parts that are bad and the labor cost of repairing it, you might be better off finding a used one.

Take it to a shop and it's going to cost you $150 - $200 just for them to take it apart and give you a price.  Most likely that's going to be a price a lot more than you're going to like.

It's not hard to get apart, if you have a way of getting a big lock ring out of the bottom, but you will need special jig to check/set upper bearing spacing when you put it back together.

I think you could be jumping the gun.  I'm not familiar with that motor so I don't know if it has a rubber bushing in the prop that would slip if it failed.  I once had a motor that the rubber bushing failed  and I too had to get back in reverse. Might not be your problem but worth checking into.  If your problem is in the lower unit and you have never torn one down then I would not attempt to.  It takes special tools.  It is a little expensive to have a dealer fix but I would get an estimate.  I'm sure if you asked around you could find an older retired outboard mechanic that would fix that at a cheap price.  Good luck.

Let me drop a couple updates here:

I drained the lower unit oil per another person's suggestion on a different board. It did not appear to be full of shavings but it smelled BURNT. I changed it this spring before I got to bass fishing much, so it hasn't been in there an ungodly amount of time. Also spoke with service manager at a shop by phone today, told him same thing I put here and he said sounded like lower unit. I figure the estimate was going to be high to tear into a lower unit, and considering I'm thinking about looking for a new boat anyway it looks like I'm gonna let it go.

The dudes reaction was " There is no telling what that is gonna be to fix"

So, next question: I know this motor is probably not worth $200 dollars now, and the transom is showing signs of rot. What do you guys think would be a fair asking price to sell this boat, or would it be worth my time to try and fix the transom and then sell it? This is an aluminum boat with a metal wood sandwich transom. It still performs fine with the smaller outboard. Anyway, any advice is appreciated. I know my baby is about to be dead, I just hope its worth something of a down payment.  :'(