When I got the old boat motor back, the lower was still detached. It was also seized up. I was trying to reattach it to store everything away, but I needed to spin the shaft to line up the teeth. Out of curiosity, I started to disassemble the lower. As I worked at the shaft, this junk started pouring out the gear oil drain... It had the consistency of dirt with some salt crystals mixed in. I didn't have a magnet to check if it was ferrous, but I assume this is what was left of my gears.