It can’t hurt but it’s kind of like putting lipstick on a pig. Just cleaning the shaft will increase the sealing ability a tiny bit and lengthen the life of the seal, a bit. The real way to fix it is to disassemble the whole thing, and install a Speedi-sleeve….if you can get one that small. There are some early, small Mercs that are one shaft size smaller than Speedi Sleeves are even made. In that case, I have found some stainless tubing and made one, which was kind of laborious, given that I don’t have a lathe. When you do that, you then have to find a seal with a larger ID, to fit the tubing. All this is well and good but the labor is large, Speedi Sleeves are going to cost in the $50 range and that’s probably about what the whole motor is worth, right? I know. I have been there. If you want to use the motor regularly to fish or whatever, get an OMC or newer Merc . If you just want to make it run, clean up the shaft, put in new seals and impeller, run the thing for an hour, then take out the impeller, change the gear oil to preserve the innards and hang it on your rack.
Long live American manufacturing!
