Boat Issue

[Central Coast Fisherman]

G'day everyone,

I went to pick my dad up this morning to go fishing and as i was reversing my boat into his driveway I went a bit to far and reversed into the brick wall between the two garage doors. I was only going very slowly and didn't hit very hard. On inspection there was no damage to the wall or the prop on my boat. The only damage was too my ego!!

Anyway we went to the boat ramp and put the boat in and away we went. Got to our first spot and dropped the anchor and was getting the rods ready and my dad noticed an oil/petrol slick forming on the water surface around the motor. We watched it for a few mins and it didnt stop. So we decided to go back to the ramp and have a look. We couldnt see anything so decided to try and go for a drive for 5 mins and see if the leak would stop. After around 30 mins of driving for a while and stopping to check if it was still happening we decided to go back in. By the end there certainly wasn't as much leaching from the motor as when we first put the boat in, however when we would stop we still noticed a small petrol/oil slick forming around the motor.

When i got home i flushed the motor and noticed that there was some oil/petrol in the water that was coming from the motor. Not the water that comes out of the bottom of the engine block (cooling water), but more from the water that was not being sucked into the motor for cooling (if that makes sense).

I then took the motor cover off and had a look around but i couldn't see any signs of where the petrol/oil could of been leaking from. Very strange.

The motor is a early 1980's 2 stroke 70HP Mercury that has never had any problems since i've had it. The motor performed normally today and didn't skip a beat.

Does anyone have any idea where the petrol could of been leaking from?

And also does anyone know where i can get a corner piece of the black rubber fender type stuff that goes around the perimeter of your boat (not sure what its called). I lost the back left hand corner piece today somewhere. The screws that were used were completely rusted and it looks like the silicon job that was done to hold it on wasn't very good.

Cheers,

Phil

[Geoff]

As Obey 1 suggests , check the GB oil to see if it is milky which indicates water is entering.

One additional point , check the actual oil level in the gearbox , it's possible the oil is escaping but no water is entering.

Either way there is a problem. Remove the prop & allow to stand overnight to see where the oil is coming from , the GB caseing or the seal.

Hopefully it will be the seal as this is not expensive to replace

Geoff

[Central Coast Fisherman]

I think i've solved my problem.

I did what you guys said and checked the gear box oil and it was fine. I even went to the trouble of getting a bucket of water and putting some petrol, oil and gear box oil in the water (separately of course) to see if any of them produced the same slick as what was being produced when i was on the water and none of them looked the same. I checked this morning to see if anything was leaking and nothing had leaked out through the night. There were no liquids on my garage floor at all. I also checked the motor for any signs of cracking and couldn't find anything.

Anyway i was just sitting here at working thinking about it and it hit me. Before i left my house yesterday morning, i used a spray lubricant on my steering shaft on the motor because it occasionally seizes up due to rust. I hadn't used the boat for a few weeks so i spent 10 mins spraying the steering shaft with the lubricant and turning the steering wheel.

I think the oily looking slick that was coming from the back of the boat yesterday was the lubricant i sprayed on the steering shaft slowly leaching out of the steering. It would explain why the motor ran perfectly fine and why the slick seemed to be coming from the back of the boat rather than from the actual motor it self. And it also explains why the slick was getting smaller and smaller the longer we stayed on the water.

I am 99% sure that this is where the slick was coming from. I guess the proof will be next time i take it out.

Cheers,

Phil