[Skidmark]

Since I'm not a member of any other forums including boat forums, I thought I would share my dilemma here with our trusted members and see what opinions I might get.

I hit some rocks last season and found out this summer my prop shaft was bent on my Suzuki 115 OB. I checked run off with a dial indicator and found the shaft was bent .120 thousand off. I have straightened it .050 thousand off so far very slowly (over 2 days) using a jack. When I started the process I noticed a very slight crack at the very end of the bearing carrier running perpendicular to the shaft. It was there before I started straightening the shaft. I was so focused on trying to get the jack, engine, and dial indicator set up, that I didn't notice that the slight crack extended a full inch. It does not look like it went far enough into the carrier to expose the lower unit oil to water, but was definitely caused by the rocks I hit because it starts at exactly 12:00 straight up. Anyway, I drained the lower unit fluid and the picture is what I got. You can see the water has settled to the bottom of the jar about 3/4".

Quick history: the fluid was changed 24 months ago and had about 10 hours of use on the water. Last year I left the boat in the water for 4-5 months with only the lower fill screw actually in the water ( engine tilted up).

Question: is the amount of water shown in the jar normal considering the factors listed above or is any water proof of a problem.

I'm tempted to continue straightening the shaft and fill fluid use boat a couple hours and drain fluid to inspect.

What are your thoughts?