Larry wrote in :

The housing is stainless steel. You still want to protect the bolts
going in, but they use something like blue loctite to prevent their
vibrating out. You couldn't separate the pump from the engine without
taking the engine out of the boat. That would be really difficult - I
hope I never have to do that. I don't think there is a rear seal,
instead a shaft comes down vertically from the engine and engages a
right angle drive which turns the pump rotor.


The bearing I'm talking about is AFT of the impeller, running in a high
pressure zone in the impeller's outlet. The seal is on the forward end of
the stator vanes, right behind the impeller. This bearing, by the way, is
necessary to hold the impeller straight in the hole it sits in, keeping it
from touching the walls around it.

I still doubt old Brunswick made a pump out of solid stainless steel.
Noone could afford to buy that much machine work. It might have a
stainless sleeve inside the pump around the impeller jetskiiers call a
"wear ring". "Things" in the water get wedged between the impeller and its
wear ring which is what causes the circular gouges you see in the pump.

The rear bearing still requires maintenance...as does its pump bearing
seal. Order the service manual from the dealer or Merc and do it very
carefully.

--
Larry