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Excellent job. I have the exact same motor and need some lower unit work on it. I purchased a spare lower unit and going to have the dealer dissassemble them both and use the good parts. I think the forward gear is a bit worn out. Have you had any issues with yours? Did you remove the oil injection?
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"I think the forward gear is a bit worn out"
Could be a gear, could be the clutch dog.
Any metal in the gear grease when you drain it? If not check your shift cable linkage adjustment under the cowling or for slop/looseness at the shift rod linkage under the carbs.
No issues with my lower. I just change synthetic gear grease yearly and replace anode under the prop as needed.
The clown I bought the rig from did a half ass O/I delete. He took out the remote oil tank and stuffed a wooden plug in the engine oil intake stem and started premixing.
It ran great in his yard on the hose but I didn't make half way down my canal before the system check tach put on a light show and the "SLOW" feature kicked in.
I didn't want to take the chance and blow $600 on a oil tank to find my O/I pump was bad. I had issues with the O/I fuel pump portion and decided to go retro and delete the whole O/I mess and installed a 48HP fuel pump. The 48 special is in essence a 50HP without O/I. Find an old 48HP and pop the cover. This will show you where to run the fuel line to the fuel manifold and where to place the horizontal fuel filter. This is the fuel pump you will need if you decide to go with the delete.
http://www.boats.net/parts/search/BRP/JOHNSON/1990/J48ESLESA/FUEL%20PUMP%20AND%20FILTER%20LATE%20PRODUCTION/parts.html. I removed the O/I pump, blocked off the O/I pulse hose to the crank and mounted the new fuel pump in it's original pulse port location on the exhaust side just in front of the 3 plug junction box with the black plastic cover. Just take out the brass bolt blocking the pulse port and mount new pump there. I reused the fuel manifold to the carbs and primer system from the old O/I pump as well. If your system check tach gives occasional low/no oil warnings snip the tan-yellow and tan-black wires going to the tach.
Many have just disconnected the O/I pump wiring harness, blocked off the oil hose stem at the engine and started pre mixing using just the fuel pump portion of the original O/I pump with good results. I tried this and had issues with the "SLOW" feature but you may have better luck so I would try this zero cost mod first.
Good Luck!