Oil in trim motor

[Joe Kay]

My nephew and I are working on a 1984 Mercury outboard 90 hp 6cyl. The trim & tilt has been gradually getting slower raising and lowering the motor and finally it hardly worked at all. We removed the motor leaving the pump in the housing. I later realized that we should have removed both motor and pump together. The motor had a lot of black oil in it. I guess the trim/tilt fluid came up through the center hole on the top of the pump where the armature goes in. Or is there another possibility?
I went to a Mercury dealer to order the seal that goes in that hole and was told the seal is not available alone and I would have to buy a new pump at a cost of
$1200.00!!! I think I need a second opinion. The motor is a round Prestolite. The serial number of the engine is 6436732.
My Seloc manual tells me that if the pump fails it cannot be repaired. It also tells me to replace that seal if I work on the trim/tilt motor.
My questions:
Is the oil in the trim motor the cause of the malfunction of the trim/tilt?
If the seal is bad, can anyone tell me where I can get a replacement without buying the whole pump? Possibly an after market part?
Thanks for any help.
Joe

 

[hemi rt]

If the seal is removable, take it out and go to a bearing supply store, they should be able to get you the proper seal, clean any oil out of the motor before reinstalling it. You could test the motor before you reinstall it to be sure it's working.

 

[Joe Kay]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try to remove the seal tomorrow. I have been trying to pull the pump out but it won't budge. Since the motor is already off and the pump is still in the base I threaded the 2 through bolts into the pump to help lift the pump but it's not moving. Is the pump always hard to remove? Is there some other fastener holding the pump in its base? Any suggestions?