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And if you can't remember how it all came apart, take pictures and lay items out left to right so they go back together in backwards order.

I walk my pup several times a day and lately the Coniferous trees about the neighbourhood have been shedding lot's of seed cones and I had the idea to try and make reels seats out of them. Well the first, possibly a first anywhere is now done. There's definitely room for improvement but as the first prototype out of the shop I'm very pleased with the end results. I envisioned something once completed that would resemble fish scales and by golly I believe they do. So, here it is from start to finish........

A boat was running around Clear Lake yesterday towing a water skier, mind you he was wearing a wetsuit but still a gutsy move LOL

I’ve seen worse. I had an old Johnson 25hp that ran flooded like this on many occasions when I was a teenager. It never crapped out on me. Yes if it froze it would be bad news, and certainly at some point with oil like that you could have a catastrophic failure. But I expect you’ll probably be ok as it was in a garage. Get the seals changed. As for leaving an outboard empty of gear oil. I did it once or twice when pressed for time in the fall on my old boat. No harm no foul. But you do need to put a few wraps of orange flagging tape around the lower as a visual reminder that you need to fill it up in the spring!

The video method is good I have taken seals out like that not going to lie taking it off is my preferred method I would suggest you go one set of screws higher and get access to the water pump and change that rubber impeller worse thing is to be out in the middle of your favourite lake and not pumping cooling water once you undo it it will drop a bit and hang on the shift linkage usually a coupler with 2 set screws loosen the lower and the lower unit will come away put it up on a bench and go to town you will see the housing for the impeller you can’t miss it troll some forums specific to your mortor first time is always painful and bloody take your time be patient use your cell for disassembly and reassembly the money you save buy a new toy for the boat and take pride in your new skill YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!! cheers peter

Video looks good just take time you can do it!!! cheers Peter

As mentioned above, this most certainly looks like a failed prop shaft seal. Just out of curiousity, what would be the problem with leaving the lower end without oil over the winter. Not that I’ve personally done it, I think one time my bottle pump broke so I was stuck for a day with no oil, but just curious as to why a sitting motor lower end that obviously still got a film of oil all over it would be damaged by sitting for a couple of months with no oil. either way siwash, lesson learned, at minimum undo that screw at the end of the year, no matter what get the years gear oil the hell out of there even if it’s nowhere near as watery as this. Being fair this is some of the worst looking oil I have ever seen, that crank case was completely full of water as far as I can tell. You may get really lucky and have no other damage. My buddies merc used to leak water too not anywhere close to this extent but if you’re lucky the water didn’t expand and crack your Lower end. if you’re like my buddy you might get away with it for a year. this kinda stuff haunts me when I think about the fact my boat is used, who knows what kind of maintenance or lack thereof people do at the end of the year. I’m not as much of a nutcase to be changing my prop shaft seal every 2 years as referenced above, but I sure as hell change the lower end oil, fog the motor, change fuel filters every 100 hours, stabilize my ethanol free fuel etc etc hopefully worth it in the long run, high performance engines ain’t cheap in 2023!

Well he just might find out what it’s like to be abused