Bizarrrre lower unit damage...

[MrX]

This is so bizarre, any ideas? No damage to prop or anything else (new 2022 boat), it’s almost as if the water pressure broke the part off but that would be impossible. Have not hit anything, and lord knows you’d feel a bang if you hit hard enough to chip part of the lower unit off. I’ve been driving boats for 30 years and know what I'm doing, it just doesn’t make sense. Insurance will pay but I honestly I think this could be a defect. Why would prop and everything else look untouched.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Not a defect and not water pressure - the bent anode is a dead tell for not being a defect. You went over a piece of wood (or similar) and one of the prop blades forced the wood up into the anti-ventilation plate.

 

[DWABoat]

My brother broke his in exactly the same spot but on the other side.
He backed into a fence pole while it was on the trailer.

 

[Little Ducky]

Looks like one of mine. I ran over something at night.

I left it as is and have been running it for the last 2 years. My outdrives are old and are on borrowed time as it is.

 

[blaster]

Looks like it may have been struck by road debris while trailering. The bent anode speaks to an on the water debris strike like Dennis said though. Do you have insurance? That definitely will affect the boat’s performance and should be fixed.

 

[paulswagelock]

As mentioned above, you hit something in the water, I would guess around 4” diameter and 4-5” long. It hit in the middle of the prop blade slinging it up into the anode and cav plate. If you inspect the blades you might find a trace of the hit.

 

[Nater Potater]

Something that would cause that type of damage would impart a pretty heavy side load to the prop shaft. I suggest you pull the prop and run a dial indicator on the shaft to check for wobble. Fingers crossed!

 

[jmcdboater]

Something that would cause that type of damage would impart a pretty heavy side load to the prop shaft. I suggest you pull the prop and run a dial indicator on the shaft to check for wobble. Fingers crossed!

+1 with @Nater Potater on this one, should be a relief to hear @Little Ducky kept on running drive with no further issues, but I agree there had to Hard contact somewhere, and the very least I’d do would be to make sure the shaft is not bent…

 

[MrX]

Yeah it's going to the shop tomorrow for winterization and I'll bring it up then.

Thanks for everyones' replies.

 

[Little Ducky]

After the hit I did have both outdrives serviced along with some deferred maintenance since the boat was coming out of the water. Both props were reworked and all is well..... no odd vibrations after the completed work.

@MrX Your shop can just replace the case for a nominal fee compared to a new complete lower unit.

 

[douglee25]

I'd just have someone weld it back together. It's not structural.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Funny, though... I always thought an anode would just break off - didn't think it would bend.

 

[SilentJ20]

I have something very similar, but mine didn't break and left evidence behind:

It's bent up, and in the crack there are wood fibers jammed into it. I primarily boat at Alder Lake (near Mt Rainier in Washington state) which is a man-made reservoir and often has wooden debris floating around. The only explanation that makes sense, is as mentioned by a couple others, a piece of wood got right between the plate and the up-swinging prop blade.

I never heard it happen, I don't remember any even that it could be attributed to. I've ran it once since and it seems to run fine. I've thought about cleaning the crack out and filling with JB Weld or something, then while still soft try to straighten it. But I'm afraid of working the cast material too much. I'm probably lucky it didn't break off when it happened. If I go whack it with a mallet, it'll probably just snap.

 

[Fill Ess]

Your shop can just replace the case for a nominal fee compared to a new complete lower unit.

There's something you don't hear often with boats: nominal fee

 

[MrX]

After the hit I did have both outdrives serviced along with some deferred maintenance since the boat was coming out of the water. Both props were reworked and all is well..... no odd vibrations after the completed work.

@MrX Your shop can just replace the case for a nominal fee compared to a new complete lower unit.

They haven’t seen it yet but I called and she inferred this happens all the time, people usually submit it through insurance. $500 deductible no big deal.

Just figures, this is my luck. Lol.

 

[Fill Ess]

Last fall when she got pulled for the winter, I noticed one skeg looked like this

I looked at pics from the previous year and it looked just like the other. I got up close and the line was smooth -- almost like it had been filed and sanded with a smooth radius: