Merc slight "clinking" in neutral, find a spare or open up, or am I too picky?

[leaky]

Fairly frequently I spin my props around to make sure everything is spinning nice, usually at the ramp after hauling out. Engines are '06 Opti 150's.. I noticed recently I'm getting a very slight "clink clink" sort of noise here and there out of my counter rotator.

A couple years ago I replaced that lower unit w/ a used one after a sliding clutch exploded and basically totaled itself to the point where I'm not sure there was even a single usable part left.. That was likely something between fighting a fish - slamming it forward/reverse, then winding up an anchor line until it stalled out, followed by 20 miles of ride in (without noticing any issue but likely it was chewing itself to schreds the whole way)..

Anyway so today I checked the cable adjustment, there is no position I can find (without the cable attached) that will clear the sound. It's very faint and does not impact the prop spinning freely, but I can hear it so seems like something is up. The gear lube is completely clean.

Options seem to be #1 - pull it apart, potentially find nothing or find something I can replace to resolve, perform an amateur repair (for the $600 I can get another lower unit for does not seem worth it to pay anyone to service this one as they likely charge me at least that) #2 buy a spare #3 keep an eye on it then buy a spare if it gets worse...

Is there any benign cause of this sort of thing? What do you guys think? It is slightly more of a pain w/ the counter rotator, since those are harder to find and do not exist after market.. I do see at least one up on Ebay I could have shipped to me by next week for $675.

Thanks in advance!

Jon

[rgsauger]

My vote is option 3. Run that sucker! The oil is clean and cable is adjusted...screw it, run it!

[leaky]

Thanks for that man, ya I'm inclined to do it that way. Also knowing that if anything is wrong it's likely something that will be aggravated by excessive free-wheeling at idle I will just avoid doing so.

I wonder how hard it is to take a right rotator and swap the gears out to make it a counter, can find the right hand ones for real short $$, might be able to Ebay some gears then will have enough parts on hand to make a right or a left if needed. Got 800 hours on the right hand lower, amazingly seems just fine, never even have had to do seals.

Jon

[TEXAS20225]

its probably nothing serious like clutch dog bouncing of mating surface on either on forward or reverse gear

[leaky]

its probably nothing serious like clutch dog bouncing of mating surface on either on forward or reverse gear

Thanks for that too - I put about 40 miles on the boat yesterday and no change in status, clean lube, same behavior if I spin the prop in neutral, so whatever is going on does not seem to be a sign of soon & imminent death.

Jon