Dare I…ask an Etec question here?

[johnyrude200]

Haggett’s marine, concord NH. Old dealer that is family owned. This isn’t a blanket statement to all dealers…but the reason why I work on motors now is because the marinas around here are all crooked.

$680 for a clutch dog in a ’70 johnson 20hp at one, haggetts lied to me and said a ’58 evinrude 18hp was no good so I would surrender it for the tank (this was 5 years ago when I knew nothing about motors).

The BRP warranty really only covers major stuff. The impeller litterally disintegrated into pieces.

[dan-in-tn]

Fleetwin is correct! Your dealer did you a dis-service if he didn’t explain that the impeller failed due to a defect to BRP. On the other hand if you ran it out of the water? (I am sure you did not do that!) That is not what they cover abuse and normal wear. Did you ask to see the impeller? It is your impeller- you paid for, both when you bought the engine and when you paid for the repairs! Dealers sometimes don’t go to bat for you. Sometimes you have to stand your ground with the dealer or or the factory. I am sure you could have put your own new impeller in the motor! That’s the way I see it.

Dan in TN

[dan-in-tn]

If you read the fine print on the 3 year service free advertising you will see it says or 150 hrs. That is still too long for gear lube in my opinion also, but it depends on how you run your motor. I don’t like it because 150 hrs can be 2 or 3 yrs for some people where it can be one season for others. I as others have stated here, it is my policy to change gear lube in the fall. I want to know I am not putting the engine up with water in the gearcase so it might freeze in cold weather. We have a tendency to use our motors year round (not this year) for fishing, but get cold enough at any time to crack a gearcase.

Dan in TN

[garry-in-michigan]

Ole would have covered the impeller … 😉

[johnyrude200]

I installed the impeller myself and bought a spare, and now have a ‘quick teardown’ kit in the boat. It obviously put the kibosh on an otherwise good weekend, and the prospect of dolling out $500+ for SeaTow (like AAA of the big waterbodies) I’d rather just get somewhere on land and spend the 45 minutes doing the job myself…while enjoying a beverage or two and conversations with passer-by-ers.

I have actually gone to a format with all personal motors (and for customers who opt to have me upgrade their used refurbished motor) to add a tach/hour meter. They cost $10 from china and last about 3 years before the internal battery dies. They are waterproof too, so now I know exactly how many hours are on the motor. I install it on the inside of the motor so you don’t even know it’s there. With the older motors (10+ years old), I tell customers to change out gear lube every 25 hours and at the end of the season, and show them how if interested. I mean, for 5 minutes and $2, it may be overkill, but I would think that all but eliminates unnecessary wear and tear. And of course I pressure test all my gearcases before they leave my sight to somebody else’s ownership.

I put 103 hours on my Etec in just over 2 months last season (first new motor, or anything gas-powered, in my life for that matter). Without that tach/hour meter it’s leaving it to chance and I just rather avoid costly repairs of course.

On this topic…I have acquired a bunch of the newer style mid 2000’s 25hp johnson gearcases. I was wondering if these are basically the same as the newer Etec 30’s (I have a 30hp Etec). There are some things that are different from a quick observation, but I’m wondering if I have gearcase failure in my Etec, how much of the 25hp gearcases might be swappable (I am putting my money on the gears themselves…Forward/Reverse/Clutch Dog). Not too worried about seals with something that is only 1 year old.

Thanks guys,

Joel

[dan-in-tn]

Doing a quick check, everything seems the same except the pinion gear itself. All of the other gears as well as the propshaft is the same. Of course the outer appearance of the gearcase is different, but that is just cosmetic (hopefully some hydrodynamics) finally! I didn’t check every part, but the gears, shifter, propshaft, gear ratio, etc. is the same. I did not check the lower pinion bearing, driveshaft, etc. I would expect that is where the beefed up area was worked on. It would also go along with the cosmetic look of the newer case.
Since the three lug shifter that has been a pretty durable gearcase in my area, not sure how it does in coastal areas?

Dan in TN

[dan-in-tn]

BTW: I assumed you were talking two stroke basic thru hub gearcase on the 2000 model. They make 37 models of that motor alone, yeah crazy ain’t it? I tried to take the same basic Etec 30. Just make 30 models of those!

Dan

[johnyrude200]

Thanks for the homework…always nice to have a factory rep give it the once over. I agree, I can’t believe how many different models are listed, but at the same time, I’m guessing most of the ‘standard’ parts are common across configurations.

The 25hp motors are from 2004; granted, 10 years senior to my 2014 30hp Etec, but in the history of OMC/BRP, runs of the motors and parts span multiple decades so I was hopeful to hold onto some of the parts to do the work myself if the time ever came to it. And I’m NOT putting the jinx on me to hit something this season…the ‘X’ factor for all of us boaters…hitting objects. I do make it a habit to go slow and ‘when in doubt, trim it out.’

I have NOS housings, and a couple of spare gearcases I could use as donors.

[dan-in-tn]

I didn’t look to see if the new Etec gearcase bolts on the same as the older gearcase. I mean the same number of fasteners, etc! The case is different in the pinion bearing area. They have added an extra pinion bearing in the case to stabilize the pinion. Looks like the pinion body is even longer than before. I would assume the driveshaft is splined longer also.
Your older cases may not bolt up to the Etecs mid-sections?

Dan in TN

[johnyrude200]

once another 2 feet of snow melt, I’ll be walking out to my winterized Etec and comparing. Will report back!

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