First happened after hitting a log or something, thought maybe the stinger on the skeg got bent up into prop area but that was clear. Prop spins by hand fine but when the clutch is engaged it may spin for a few seconds but then there is a clashing sound and the engine dies.
Got home and took it apart from the knuckle joint on down. All bearings turn smoothly, no evidence of any damage (no metal chips, no damage to gears). Reassembled and ran it today, same issue so I figure problem must be in the upright section of the lower. Took the lower end completely apart today. It does feel like the bearing is a little scratchy, other than that everything seems OK. I don't understand how something that seems so minor can be causing this major failure. Am I missing something? Is there some kind of alignment that I need to do?
Can the upright section be disassembled? Can I get parts anywhere besides PD?
Any help would be appreciated.

need to take apert the clutch and inspect it, also the shaft collar that attached to it

Can do, ddb, but what am I looking for there?

Bent, broken bands in the clutch. Any exposed copper wire from inside the clutch. I belite this is where your problem will be.

If those bands bend or break they will be out of balance. Once they get out of balance they start rubbing the rubber coating off of the electromagnet's coil. Once that happens the next time that band hits your coil it grounds the motor out. I have seen it where it kills the engine but never blows the fuse.

Well, clutch looks fine and all the parts of the lower unit seem like they are OK too.

The shaft collar the meshes with the splines of the lower unit looks like it has seem better days. The recent breaks in the peaks of the splines inside the collar tell me this is new damage, and though I don't know what this part looks like new I can't believe the features would be so poorly defined.

I'm surprised that the two parts don't overlap more than what they appear to do, based on the location of the new breaks.



Anyone got one they can spare?