Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

[Falcon-]

Well... I have gone and done an ultimate stupid and shifted my boat on the trailer with the leg down. This resulted in the skeg contacting the cement.

I now have a very slow oil leak from between the upper and lower housings of the sterndrive. From some searching I see that at a minimum I probably damaged either the seals in the upper housing or the oil seal below the water pump in the lower housing.

I have had the leg apart to replace the impeller (only last week) so I know I can get that far, but I have not gone farther in. Will I require special tools to remove/properly replace and of the seals involved? Do any of you have any further advice for me? (aside from "DON'T DO THAT!!!" of course... I am already taking *that* bit of advice to heart.)

oh, and this is a 1992 alpha one Gen II hooked up to a Mercruiser 4.3L of the same vintage.

- Sean

 

[fuzzybob]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

Sean, when you had the drive apart last week for the impellar are you sure you put the small 0-ring seal back in the oil passage between the upper and the lower? Welcome to iboats

 

[Falcon-]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

fuzzybob

In fact no, I am *not* sure. Or rather, I am sure I did not do that but am not sure if the o-ring was ever out of place.

And in fact the strike to the leg was not too long after we finished so I am not able to rule that out as a possibility for the cause if we simply did not notice the leak sooner (it is a slow leak).

Thanks for the welcome.

- Sean

 

[fuzzybob]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

Don't know if you pulled the whole drive or just dropped the lower but if you just dropped the lower the quad ring will sometimes hang in the upper and fall out later while your working on the pump. Some pump kits include a new Q-ring if not it's a good idea to replace it whenever you have the drive apart.

 

[Falcon-]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

In this case, not having done the job before, when I asked for everything I would need to "change the impeller" I was given only the impeller itself and the two flat gaskets for the lower pump housing not a "pump kit", so I had no o-rings or other new seals unfortunately. I was already not exactly happy about re-using the seal that slides down over top of the water pump on the drive shaft.

FWIW we first had the whole sterndrive off and bell housing off to replace all three bellows, the water tube, and shift cable (the u-joint bellows was cracked and the others rather aged). We had re-installed the sterndrive and then dropped the lower housing from there to change the impeller.

I will not be able to get back at the boat until mid-week at earliest, but sounds like the first thing to do will be:

1) order o-ring for oil passage, drain oil, drop housing, check & replace o-ring.

I gather that the oil passage seal/o-ring and the Quad Ring are in fact the same item?

If it turns out that is not the issue, what about the seals on the drive shaft in the upper housing or below the water pump?

This is the first boat I have owned myself so this type of maintenance/repair is new to me.

 

[Falcon-]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

<killed accidental duplicate post>

 

[Evinrude Boater]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

The o-ring between the lower and upper gear case on the starboard side is about the diameter of a pencil. Not sure what the quad ring is. The driveshaft seal in the upper gear case is a common seal with a metal carrier. See photo.

 

[Falcon-]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

Thanks for the photo - what I am wondering is if I will require any special tools in order change out that seal. I know many tasks in the sterndrive require various special tools and an concerned this may be one of those tasks.

Ideally if I know that is the case I can order those tools so that they will be at hand when i am able to get back to the boat to work on it.

My problem is that I live on an island that is accessible by small boat only, no road or ferry access, and *my* boat is on the mainland. I only get a couple days a week where I can head to the mainland to work on the boat so I am trying to get as much info as possible so that what little time I have can be used properly, rather then getting things half done and then having to wait another week!

And of course being as this is a new (to me) boat I am impatient to get it done enough to launch and do not *want* to wait another week!

 

[fuzzybob]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

If you're going to do routine maintenance and looks like you will, a well stocked box of common tools should get you by. Two things you should have is an alignment bar and a pressure tester for the stearn drive. The alignment tool will align the engine with the gimbal bearing and the pressure tester will let you know if the drive is sealed. You can get these two items on E-bay, alignment bar for about $50 shipped and the pressure tester for $30 or so. You can do a forum search for alignment and one for pressure testing the drive and read up on both as there are a bunch of posts on each. Some posts will tell you how to make your own tools.
Before buying parts you might want to do the pressure test to find the leak if it turns out not to be the oil passage 0 ring. The merc manual calls it a quad ring if you need to order one. The shaft seal under the water pump can be popped out with a couple of small phillips screw drivers. There's a small hole on each side of the carrier.

 

[Falcon-]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

Now that is interesting.... When i was buying all the tools for doing the replacement of the bellows I had been quoted something on the order of $500 for the alignment tool. I found that the sterndrive was fairly easy to remove/re-install so we assumed that the alignment was good. If I can indeed find the alignment tool for ~$50 I will certainly pick one up!

I do intend to do as much of the maintenance myself as possible as this will be a well used transport boat (aka oceangoing pickup truck) rather then an occasional use pleasure craft and marine mechanics rates being what they are....

I had intended to pressure test as well and had seen this post:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=1573303#post1573303

and planed to make myself a tester.

My thinking though is that this leg is 17 years old and I suspect given the condition of the bellows these seals may be original, so if I am going to take the leg apart again *anyway* and if the parts/tools are affordable to me right now I would like to replace the seals regardless of if they are the cause of *this* leak or not.

And given the fact that I hit the concrete with the leg I am even more distrustful of the seals then I already was.

That being said I am under an unfortunate money crunch so knowing the exact seals and tools involved will help me figure out if I should just replace 'em all now, or test then replace as needed.

FWIW my intention is also to pull the boat out of the water after one month and 6 months after launching to check how the leg is holding up as well.

 

[Falcon-]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

oh, and just for the fun of it, here is what the boat actually is!

http://hoth.x-wing.ca

Obviously I have more to do then just the leg, but the hull work will be done this weekend so as soon as the leg is done I can launch it and do the rest on the island!

- Sean

 

[fuzzybob]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

That's a good looking old boat.... a little regular maintenance and I'm sure it'll make a lot of trips to the Island!! Best of luck

 

[Falcon-]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

Thanks - I was happy to find it and it should be just the right type of hull for the rough Howe Sound winter weather!

Perhaps I could take this chance to pick your brain a bit further - what do *you* consider "regular maintenance" tasks?

 

[Falcon-]

Re: Alpha 1 Gen II leaking drive oil

I finally got to take the leg apart again and install that quad ring - it was indeed missing. It is now two days since I did that and there is no leaking oil.

I have not had the engine running since then though as the wiring is being re-done, but given that the quad ring was indeed missing I am still willing to declare problem solved.

After the tip about the 3rd party alignment tool I ordered one off ebay and am waiting for it to arrive now.

I would still like to hear an expert/experienced boat owner's opinion of what should be regular maintenance tasks for a setup like mine (MerCruiser 4.3L, Alpha One Gen II)

Thanks for the advice!

- Sean