What the heck is that ticking?????????

[JETTYWOLF]

I have to be the most unlucky person in the world who counts on an outboard motor.

I've had a Suzuki 140 lower unit strip all the gears heading out the inlet for no reason other that USE....yeah I use my boat. At Two years old. And the lower unit crack in half, twice.

I've had a Yamaha 200 HPDI power head blow up at 12 months old!

I've had the same Evinrude 200, blow up twice with in 2 years. I junked that outboard.

I've had a brand new out of the box Yamaha 200 HPDI not run when attempting to do a break-in...I think It ran for and hour.

Now, I have a 17 month old Honda 225, with a chip in the gears in the lower unit.
I started to notice a "ticking" sound about a week ago. The ticking was even slightly there even when not in gear. So lucky for me I have many commercial fisherman friends and they have mechanics on the Nextel Direct connect......just a beep,beep, away. So my buddy Raymond who's a crabber told me, "call this guy." So I beep, beeped him, asap.

The mechanic is a 16 year veteran Honda guy, who works on the USCG Safe boats, and US customs boats for a living. Man does he have so stories. He shruggs his shoulders and said, "Those kids sure can ruin everything I give them, but they keep me employed."

He lives about 50 miles south of me. So I told him I'll give you $100 to come to my house and tell me what the ticking is. It would have cost me $100 in gas to go to his house and back!

He just left two hours ago, and even brought a co-worker. They were all over my Honda. But it only took about 10 minutes for them to figure out it's the Lower Unit. And I have a chipped "forward gear".

OH _ _ _ _!

Now Monday, I have toget it fixed under warrenty. At the only Honda place in Town, that I avoid like V.D. because I always feel they are just ripping me off....as they have before. That's why I had an independent mechanic look at it first. So there's no funny business. Yeah, we have to do that around here. I'm not sending no ones kids to college!!!

Who'd ever think (NOT ME) that a 16 month old Honda would let me down.

I changed the gear lube on Monday, and did notice excessive metal filings on the Magnet. And Jason the mechanic said, I'd expect so. So he popped the bottom plug and yep, after two days of running after the lower unit lube change, there's metal filings all over the magnet again.

Honda - Evinrude - Suzuki - Yamaha.....are any built to run like a vehicle? It took my 1995 F-250, 12 years of hard towing to finally need a transmission.

I'm just glad to finally have a mechanic on my side that I can go to and not feel like I have to hold the vasaline jar for him.

[Occams Razor]

Hello All:

I am still reading all the post and this one cought my eye. I do all my own work. Have been for years and outboards are easy for someone that is used to working on all auto manufactures and all the crazy engineering they build into these super high tech wonder engines and transmissions. I have been working on outboards for years. I could not wait to get a Honda !If I can provide you with one piece of advice about your engines it is this. Do not skimp on lower unit oil or engine oil. First of all I cannot put it into words the amount of stress put on the gears in the lower unit. They are small for what is required of them an they get hot !, yes that case gets hot even in the water. Its not enough that the gears have to be stressed by a super high output ,torquey monster power head , but the exhuast flows buy them also making matters even worse (especially at or near WOT). These are not race style lower units that are dry sumped with oil coolers, the oil you have in the lower unit is all that you have to control it from eating itself. Strait 90W does not cut it I don't care what rep says. I highly recommend using the highest quality sythetic gear oil you can get your hands on. I prefer Royal Pourple gear oil because it drasticly cuts down friction better than nearly every other oil manufacture. Its is unbelievable in friction fighting and one you chage it out two or three times you will be astounded how clean it comes out compared to 90W witch usuall comes out black stinking and with fine metal chips ! That will all stop if your lower unit is in good shape when you change over. Change it out at least twice a year it cheap compared to a L/U rebuild.
Now if you think that high grade synthetic oil works so well in the L/U it works just as well in the powerhead that is water cooled. Just make sure your powerhead is broken in before you start using high quality sythetic. It is literally to slick to be used to brak in a powerhead. It will take years to seat the rings if you do. But once your powerhead is broken in do the switch and never look back. These new over head cam multi valve powerheads put out big power but they have more than twice the moving parts the two stokes had. There are precision fitted cam support bearing, crank shaft bearings and variable cam actuators. Thes parts need good clean low friction quality oil to survive what we put them through. Nothing will help make them survive better than a high quality sythetic oil. Again Royal Pourple is my choice for is unreal friction reducing qualities. Now is all this necesary..... well I will tell you honestly as a tech....I am sure shops would rather see you lunch and trash your gear. That is how they make money..... you can keep your money and save it for a new outboard when you want to upgrade. Now how good is Royal Pourple ? I will let you know how long my Honda goes , but my cousins 22 Skeeter with a 250 Suzie on it that I have been teching on for 5 yeras has nearly 6000 hours on it ! Believe my Royal Pourple works especially when you are pushing equipment to its rated ouput. Tight Lines !

[JETTYWOLF]

Good post,

But one hint for easier reading is to break into paragraphs, via double spacing.

I've been doing over 1200 words a day for many, many years now, and have found that it's also easier to proof read too.

BTW, it was a chipped gear replaced under warrenty. And all I do is soft peddle around at slow speeds.