As the title states, I broke the skeg off my '83 115 inline 6. Well actually it was my dad so the details of how it happened are not clear. Also keep in mind this is our first boat which we've had for only 6 months so we're still pretty green when it comes to boating. Back to the story. Apparently while cruising at about half throttle he hit something that jarred the boat significantly. Everything seemed OK to him (the motor still ran and the boat wasn't taking on water) so he continued to fish for a couple more hours. After he got it on the trailer, he looked it over briefly but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Needless to say when I was looking it over yesterday I immediately saw the skeg was missing. It was completely ripped off to the point that you could see into the lower unit from underneath.
Here are my questions.
1. How much damage to the lower unit can be expected since it was operated for a couple hours with no lower unit oil?
2. What years Mercury/Mariner lower units will fit this outboard.
3. How difficult is it to swap out lower units for someone with good mechanical ability and a manual, just not alot of outboard experience.
4. Will anything rust in the lower unit without oil? If so, how should I go about trying to get the lower unit lubed considering there is a large opening in the bottom?
Thanks.
Here are my questions.
1. How much damage to the lower unit can be expected since it was operated for a couple hours with no lower unit oil?
2. What years Mercury/Mariner lower units will fit this outboard.
3. How difficult is it to swap out lower units for someone with good mechanical ability and a manual, just not alot of outboard experience.
4. Will anything rust in the lower unit without oil? If so, how should I go about trying to get the lower unit lubed considering there is a large opening in the bottom?
Thanks.
