have an 82 johnson 175 just went to change the lower unit lube and out came ALOT of water, what's a ball park figure to get this lower unit rebuilt, assume everything needs replaced.
also does anyone know of any "performance" gears ie. similar to the merc xs sportmaster, currently 1:86-1 would like to increase the prop rpm's.

Seal kit is 70.00, water pump kit is 52.00 and 200.00 labor. Do`nt know why you would be talking about rebuild? This is not anything that unusual. Your talking about lots of $ to change gear ratio on an older OMC.

I agree w/ Gary. Seal kit and water pump kit. If you can do it yourself, you will save about $200. I am sssuming the case is not cracked or something like that.

water was in the gear lube and had quite a bit of metal on the magnet, thinkin a rebuild is the way to go. would the metal come from the bearings or the gears or where? this is a part of the engine i dont work on.

Was it metal chuncks or a bunch of metal slivers...

it was slivers, not a whole lot of em but enough to make me wonder where they came from.

happened on my 1984 Evinrude about 10 years ago replaced seals
been running fine ever since

A few metal slivers is perfectly normal. You just don't want any 'chunks'.

thanks for all the help, droppin the lower unit and takin it in for new seals and an inspection of the gears.

Just get a lower pitched prop to increase the rpms.

fz I've run 5 different types of props on this boat and cant seem to get the rpm's up where they need to be. now have a b&b 24 raker, b&b 24 power pro (4blade) and have gone as low as a 23 but it slipped too much. just gonna go with what I have for now and be happy with it.

or re-pitch the one you have

Understand.