Yamaha 50 hp, oil slung off flywheel

[<rdaystrom>]

Hello, My brother purchased a used boat with a Yamaha 50 hp 2 stroke engine, mix type. (not oil injected). Upon removing the engine cover I noticed where oil had sprayed or slung out from the flywheel and got on the inside of the cover. Does this indicate a leaky crank seal? Do these seals normally leak or pop out? Is it replaceable without splitting the engine cases? Also is there another source of oil.? There was a coating of oil on the engine and ignition pulser coil as if sprayed with some oil. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Robert

[<boats.net>]

Sometimes people lube the starter bendix and it will sling oil or grease, but it will only be on outer edge of flywheel.
You will probably have to pull flywheel and check seal

[<rdaystrom>]

Thanks for the advice. I will do just that if I can manage to get a puller. I am unsure about the source of the oil but your idea of someone oiling the flywheel gear makes sense. Here's why. When I pulled the engine cover I noticed a starter bolt was backed out about 3/8 of an inch and the other bolt was loose as well. The starter could be moved aroung with your hand. It follows then that this would make horrible noise and someone wanting to sell the boat, and not knowing the starter was loose, might squirt some oil on the gear hoping to alleviate the starter gear noise. I'll check this out. Thanks for putting me on the right track. Robert

[<samIam>]

Or thats where the ground cable went.
haha or they spray the engine with a lube like i do at the end of season.

[<rdaystrom>]

Took the boat to a dealer and they said it was OK. They test ran it and gave it a "good to go" rating. They said the oil could have come from somewhere else. Yea, right. We ran it and it was somewhat rougher at idle than I expected but still pretty good considering the horrible outboards I've had in the past. We took it home and removed the cover....fresh ring of oil. Got a flywheel puller and removed the flywheel. You guessed it, bad crank seal. The lip of the seal was hanging out about an inch. Next day we got a new seal, put it in, and it runs perfect with considerably more power...and dry as a bone under the cover. I also cleaned the oil off the starter and bolts and torqued them properly.