In our first article of this series, we reviewed the basic components of a gearcase to give us a good understanding of what goes into your unit. In this article, we start with a look at one of the gearcase replacement choices – the Non-OEM Gearcase.  

You may have been through this already, but if you haven’t, beware,  there are new, replacement, non-oem lower units on the market selling for very cheap prices.  The saying goes – “you get what you pay for” and that may be true in this case.  On the plus side, some of these non-oem products offer excellent warranties but what they can’t replace is your missed outings on the boat while you fix or replace the cheap one you purchased.  They can’t replace your time towing the boat back to shore, time taking the boat to your repair shop and time following up with your shop to get your boat back on the water.  Also, most of these warranties do not cover labor to have your repair shop diagnose and re-install a new unit. You might find that you have to pay for shipping your unit back to the manufacturer so they can inspect your drive and determine if they will cover it under warranty. So again, buyer beware that while inexpensive, these units are not very reliable. At a price point of under $1000, the non-OEM unit is attractive for the budget conscious boater.

In our next article, we’ll be delving into the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) gearcase unit. If you would like to read ahead, click here.

* To get started with a new or remanufactured lower unit from US Boatworks, you don’t have to wait for the rest of this course; check out our website for all the models we carry – https://www.boatengine.com/lower-units/gearcase-selection/.

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