Dead in the water on our first boat trip

[krakatoa]

could you upload some pics about the parts and what are you doing?

 

[Bt Doctur]

At this point I will wager a guess that you found splines on the lower driveshaft so overheating means that shaft was not turning. Draining a quart makes me suspicious the upper ran low on oil and took out the upper gearset .If you found no oil in the bellows then you had improperly filled the drive or have a seal that leaked

 

[Alumarine]

The prop will click when turned one way in forward. It will click the other way in reverse.

 

[bryceman2712]

Trying to figure out how to do these pictures it will only let me add one per post or upload my entire album from photo bucket

 

[bryceman2712]

I select upload from url and on photo bucket I copy the one that says for forums and starts with url and the site just says not a valid url

 

[bryceman2712]

It is the drive gears I took the cap off the upper section and shavings everywhere. The horizontal one behind the u joint coupler is completely smooth and the vertical one looks trashed but could just be packed with the top portion.

From what I have read on another Web page you need a lot of special tools to do this job I don't even think I can remove anything more at this point without some tools. I uploaded some pics if you click the link the first 5 pics are looking into the upper unit.

Looks like my boating season is done for this year $6,000 for an hour and a half I should have just rented a boat! Lol

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... Look into a brand new SEI aftermarket drive, 'bout $1500. I think,.....

iboats has 'em listed,...

Yer lower unit is gonna be trashed to ya know, All the junk from the upper, falls down into the lower,....

 

[Bt Doctur]

Ok so why was it low on oil?

 

[flipbro]

That sucks. Best bet now is what Bondo suggested.

 

[Bt Doctur]

The drive comes n two boxes and you put it together, install it, and fill it with oil. It seems that the "fill it with oil" somehow wasnt done correctly the first time and doing it the same way to the new drive will result in the same problem.He has to figure what went wrong so it dosent happen again.

 

[bryceman2712]

I think there may have been a bad seal or something. The previous owner was in this drive unit last fall changed impeller and coupler shaft and bellows. There was a tear in one of the gaskets that I could see from the out side but could not say for sure that was it bc I feel if oil leaked out water would have also leaked in.

Sei has that top portion for $645 complete. my question now is can I bolt that top portion to my current lower unit??? Or do I need to buy the entire outdrive from SEI for $1299.

I found the gear box rebuild kit for like $450 but I kind of just want to put new top half in to eliminate question of did I do it right. And buying all the tools needed. Was you guys able to see the pics from the link I posted?

 

[redneck joe]

Get a whole SEI and keep what you have for parts. Three year unconditional warranty so even if you screw something up you're covered.

 

[Rick Stephens]

No way to rebuild your own sterndrives without spending better than a grand in tooling. By the time you pay out for parts and tools, and then get inside it and find out what else it might need, you will have more than $1300 in it AND no warranty whatsoever. SEI's 3 year warranty cannot be beat. And the price is much better than do it yourself.

I bought an SEI 2 years ago. Nice bolt on unit.

Rick

 

[bryceman2712]

I already knew what y'all are saying. I looked up the lower unit Friday night on my phone for $1300. We just don't have a lot of extra money laying around after just buying a boat and spending another grand this week to get ready for the water. I was just hoping someone knew a cheaper way around this but I don't want to be " in the same boat" bc I'm cheap. Lol. Time to trim our budget and let's all say it together "BREAK OUT ANOTHER THOUSAND". My father in law said his best days with his boat was the day he bought it and the day he sold it.

That hour anf a half was probably the most fun my family had in years and the addiction has set in. thank you guys for you tips and wisdom I will post back on here when I manage to get a new outdrive.

 

[Rick Stephens]

I have been there brother. And my name was mud.

 

[nola mike]

Keep your eye out on craigslist. I've bought a few in the $200 range. Crapshoot what you'll get of course, but they're around.

 

[Newbie@boats]

If you're looking to get away as cheap as possible look on Craigslist for out drives, I myself have sold a few off of there. But they are USED, and can have issues....but you never do know

 

[bryceman2712]

How can I tell if my out drive is gen 1 or gen 2, and I see that the new ones say counter rotation and right hand rotation. Also they have different gear ratio. Mine is a 1.84r do I need the same exact one?

 

[JASinIL2006]

Scroll to the bottom of the first post of this topic (from the stickies at the top of this forum): http://forums.iboats.com/forum/engi...miscellaneous-mercruiser-information?t=329915

It shows the different models of Mercruiser drives. You'll probably want one with similar gearing. If you have a single engine boat, you most likely have standard (or right hand) rotation.

 

[Bt Doctur]

If the metal filings were not in the lower unit`s oil then you can just replace the upper. but if the lower was leaking the end result will be the same.
You can pressure test just the lower unit. An Alpha 1 goes together with 5 nuts, a GEN II type uses 2 nuts and bolts on each side.
gear ratio must be maintained.