Home › Forum › Ask A Member › RD-17 crank defects—- › Re: RD-17 crank defects—-
I agree with you on not having anything to lose by trying it. If it’s .001 under the other two it’s probably out of spec considering the other two likely have some trace of wear on them. The are needles though so that wear should be minimal. I too have myou doubts if the Seloc manual will give you the crank journal specs. They try to cover a lot of information in those manuals and give up some specifics for the sake of broad coverage. I’ll bet someone here does have those specs though. I’m thinking you are in the right neighborhood with the +/-.0005. In this case, if that’s all I had and the rest of the journals and throws are good, I’d try filling the groove from the lip seal and running it.
Take care when you finish the sealing surface to make sure it’s flat and smooth. A fine polish is probably not needed but a good finish without grinding marks is needed to prevent premature wear of the seal and leakage. I have never done this on a crankshaft journal myself, but have used lots of lip seals on rotating shafts in industrial machinery applications. Those get super critical, but on a 2-stroke outboard, that’s probably overkill.
-Ben
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