Reply To: Oil Slingers Again

[frankr]

OK so I might have screwed that up.  I don’t have a 7.5 hp to examine, but I do have a 5hp Gale, a 12hp Gale, and a 6hp E’rude.  The 6hp has a real oil seal, but otherwise there are a lot of similarities.  At least on the Gales there is a groove cut in the upper bronze bushing.  The vacuum from the intake manifold is applied to one end of that groove and the other end of the groove connects to the hose going down the side of the powerhead to the lower bearing.  So, intake manifold vacuum is sucking oil from the lower bearing, up through the hose, to one end of the groove to lubricate the bearing.  The other end of the groove goes back to the vacuum source, the intake manifold.  So, where I goofed up is there is no vacuum passage to the area between the bearing and slinger.  Instead, the groove is very close to the top of the bearing and gravity is depended upon to settle the oil back down through the end of the bearing and to the groove.  Um…did I mention an “orifice” to restrict the air flow?  How about that short section of bearing clearance to do the same job?  Pretty dang ingenious if you ask me.

All this to admit that I still believe the 7.5 is a slight variation.

Your mileage may differ.