Alpha 1 Upper Gearcase Bearing - or lack thereof

[CableGuy1978]

Hello folks,

I came across an Alpha Gen 1 outdrive that had some issues. One of which was that it had no oil in the upper whatsoever, and it was low on oil in the lower half as well. There must have been a leak somewhere, though I recall seeing a few droplets of milky oil on the ground that were coming from the fill screw.

So I am fairly certain I know why it failed. I guess it had been making some crazy noise recently. I popped the cap off the upper gear case. Inside I found a disintegrated bearing carrier, and 12 bearing rollers down amongst the gear teeth. Pretty obvious what the noise was all about. Also, the whole inside of the upper is coated with fine shavings of worn gears and bearings.

Is this drive worth saving at all? The lower still had some oil in it but not sure how bad any wear is without actually pulling it apart as well. I'm assuming that fine metal shavings would be able to pass from the upper to the lower through the oil passage between them and basically infect the lower as well. I'm not sure how long this guy ran it with no oil either for the bearings to wear out like that. If the guts are all toast, would the upper and lower cases be salvageable?

 

[rickryder]

Re: Alpha 1 Upper Gearcase Bearing - or lack thereof

I would get a new SEI unit. The cases should be ok but every bearing,seal and gear are trash....even the lower will have some metal in it from the upper unit.....that whole gravity thing

 

[Bondo]

Re: Alpha 1 Upper Gearcase Bearing - or lack thereof

Is this drive worth saving at all?

Nope....