Just did a search for MS2B here and got 0 hits, can that be right?
Anyway, my gearbox's
seals gave up the ghost over the weekend. I put a fresh round of
oil in last night and it turned to gray sludge in less than 2 minutes of idling. Drained it back out and it settled out to what looked like 50%
water... ick.
So, the fore warning... this is my first
boat of any kind (1986
Beneteau Idylle 1050 with
Penta 2003
engine and MS2B gearbox) and I have not previously had the opertunity to monkey with gearoxes or prop shafts, etc. on any else's
boats first. So my own may well be the guinea pig.
So first... how hard should I expect it to be to replace the
seals in one of these? Is it a job a reasonably mechanicly inclind person could do (any special tools)? Or is this one of those special needs kinda things that will have to be done by a "trianed professional".
Also, this may be a real no brainer to some, but as I said, I've never pulled a prop shaft before so... What I don't know is the typical setup as far as bearings, etc. on the
outboard end. The
boat came with one of those graphite packless shaft seals. So there is a shaft clamp/holder/whatever the proper name is for the round plate bolted to the back of the
gearbox that the shaft is snugged into is called... My gut expectation is that if I disconnect this from the
gearbox, well the packless seal on the other end of the shaft will decompress and stop being
water tight. In other words, this is probably going to require having the boat pulled. If that is not the case and I can keep the boat in the water while doing this, that will save me an extra
haul out expense to go with whatever the gearbox damage is going to run...
Thanks for any input.