Reply To: Are my clam shell gear case half's mismatched? RDE-17 25 hp 1955 Johnson

[billw]

Sometimes they fit like that. There is nothing in the pictures you have shown that would, alone, make me think they were mismatched. When they made those gear cases, the main parts came from two separate molds. The flats were then machined, it was bolted together and then line bored for the bearings. What makes the complete units a “Matched set” is this line boring, not the castings themselves. Now, if the parts are different colors or something, that’s another story.

Long live American manufacturing!