lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

[ziggy]

hi folks, more concerns. the clymer book talks about condeming a lower drive shaft for excessive oil seal wear on the lower drive shaft at the seawater pump. i have some. .005" diff. in dia. at the upper pump seal. so i suppose .0025 groove. i am more concered about the oil seal wear at the splined end. it appears worse, but also measures .005" diff. .0025" groove. question is, is that to much wear and should i be concerend with replaceing the lower drive shaft. the groove up on the splined end looks a little rougher than i'd like. (any is more than i'd like, but....)<br /><br />measurememts were with a dial caliper. all i got to measure with....<br /><br />also i replaced, on the upper drive shaft houseing, the lower seal last year. not the upper. is that the one grooveing my lower drive shaft....

 

[Laddies]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

The seal ring that you are talking about at the top of the shaft is a seal taht is to help keep water out the spline area and a secondary seal for the upper hsg. some times you can save a shaft by setting the seal lips up or down the shaft or using a double lip seal

 

[Bondo]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

Ayuh,.........<br />In My experince,. If you can "Feel" the groove with your thumb nail,....... <br />No amount of Wishing in the World is going to Help.......<br />If you can't relocate the seal like Laddies says,.......<br /><br />She's Junk........Sorry........

 

[ziggy]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

hum, that's not encourageing news. guess i didn't think it would be though. yep bondo, ya can feel the groove with my nail. <br />so i seem to be gettin had at every turn. what are my options? seems like it is either tear down the upper to R&R the seal that wore the bad groove. re-seal it i suppose. then theres the lower. R&R the drive shaft and re-seal it. all on a 72 drive. perhaps i shoulds be thinking B.reak O.ut A.nother T.housand & replace the drive with a remanufactured one. any thoughts?

 

[olbuddyjack]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

Might want to try what Bob says here:<br />

some times you can save a shaft by setting the seal lips up or down the shaft or using a double lip seal

Could get a little more use from it and some time to save up some $.

 

[tommays]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

ziggy<br /><br />the SEI unit at www sterndrive cc gets good feedback<br /><br />the real question is does your unit still fail a pressure/vacume test with good seals<br /><br /><br />tommays

 

[trog100]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

yes u make your choice.. u either try useing the tips u have been given to reseal the old drive and hope it works or u take the other option and fork out for another drive..<br /><br />rebuilding any old thing requires skill and knowledge if u want to do it in a sensible and economically sound fashion..<br /><br />any fool can just replace everything that dosnt look like new and be pretty sure its gonna work.. but the economics of it wont make much sense..<br /><br />do it that way and it will cost more than buying new in the first place.. there are some that would dissagree but fixing things on the cheap takes more skill than most folks have.. which is why most folks cant do it..<br /><br />its also the big difference between the pro approach and the home mechanic approach.. the pro has to fix it and fix it right the first time cos thats what he is being paid to do.. the home mechanic has more options.. he can have several goes at it.. he dosnt have to get it right the first time..<br /><br />some might think my post here is nonsense.. but its at the heart of home tinkering.. the home tinkerer really does have more options up his sleeve to work with than the paid mechanic..<br /><br />trog100

 

[achris]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

Ziggy,<br /><br />You do have a couple of options still open to you.<br /><br />One is to remove the shaft and have the seal surface 'reclaimed'. The other option is to install a Speedi-sleeve .<br /><br />Chris...........

 

[Destin]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

You might want to install a remote oil reservoir kit. I check my oil level before I go out every time. You will know if you have oil in the outdrive. If you have a slow leak you will see it before your gears are destroyed, and you may get by with marginal seals, because when the drive gets hot the oil goes into the reservoir, and when it cools the oil flows back into the drive. It doesn't form much of a vacuum to suck water into the drive. For around $80 it's good insurance whether you have a new or old drive.

 

[trog100]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

now that speedy-sleev thingy looks usefull..<br /><br />it actually looks like it might work.. assuming u could get one the right size and they are thin enough..<br /><br />trog100

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

The speedi-sleeve is a great idea but because they are so thin they will mold into the groove, use a bit of liquid steel in the groove first then press on the speedi-sleeve.<br /><br />Aldo

 

[ziggy]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

hi guys, wanted to thankyou all for the input. achris, the speedi-sleeve does look like it might be a viable option. i've just found a distributor for them here in lincoln. gonna go see him tomorrow. the next problem is that the speedi sleeve is only designed to be installed to a depth of 2" or so i guess. gonna have to dream up a driver to get them to there proper location on the drive shaft. 3" and 9" down the shaft. gonna go look at them and see what i can dream up. <br />also a good point dunaruna. themz speedi-sleeves are mighty thin. think it said .3MM. yikes. good idea on the liquid steel as a slot filler....hope i don't get to tommays idea, SEI. but is still a option. thanks guys. i'll let ya know what happened.

 

[tommays]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

ziggy<br /><br />the speedy sleeve is good for the pump base seal BUT its going to be hell to get the water pump inpeller over the 3" one on top of the shaft <br /><br />i have used them to repiar machines and they work great BUT the driver is real inportant or the sleave will die on the way down<br /><br />tommays

 

[Bondo]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

i have used them to repiar machines and they work great BUT the driver is real inportant or the sleave will die on the way down

Oohhh Yaaa,............ Been There, Done That,... Many Times........

 

[ziggy]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

hum, that seems like a good point tommays. here's what i'm measureing so far. top land is .859". bottom land is .877, where impeller rides. impeller ID is .8775". and that's stretchin it maybe. i am understanding what yer saying about the driveing it on part. being sure to drive it proper. if not i run the risk of breaking off the sleeve, leaving no way to drive it. then i'm done if that happens. got any good ideas as to how to do that. w/o seeing the driver, only a pic of. i'm thinking a 1" ID pipe. cuting a hole in the top of the driver so it will go over the drive shaft. just my thoughts so far. i am thinking that i will be sleeveing the top of the water pump cover, not the bottom. and the top seal. just under the drive shaft splines. also, are you insinuateing perhaps that i won't get the impeller on period. that wouldn't be to good. <br /><br />i am a little confused as to where wear is coming from just under the splines of the drive shaft. i just got my $16, ebay special, oem vol 2 mercruiser manual. on page 6A32, is it #16 or 17 or both? do i get to them from the bottom of the upper to replace them. w/o removeing the upper? or am i just dreaming.. <br /><br />i sure do appreciate yer guys expertise and help.. this is a good forum. thanks...

 

[achris]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

Ziggy,<br /><br />You're spto on with the driver to get the sleeve to the bottom of the water pump, that's exactly how I used to do it. For the one on the top of the driveshaft, put it on after you do the water pump impeller. The seal that is creating the groove on the top is the lowest, smaller seal in the top box. You can replace that one easily without opening the top box at all. just turn the box upside down and flick the old seal out with a screwdriver, then put the new one in. The other seal in that area runs on the bottom of the driven gear. If you ever need to replace that one, it's a strip job on the top box.<br /><br />One last tip. DON'T put the 'o'-ring on the top of the driveshaft. The reason is that it has a habit of being picked up by the lower seal in the top box and holding it open, letting water into the area and having fun with your splines. The later model driveshafts don't even have the 'o'ring groove.<br />

<br /><br />Chris.............

 

[tommays]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

the tool has to match the radis on the sleeve and be almost a tight fit over it 9 " is a LONG press and pressing would be better than banging it that far<br /><br />i was thinking if you did the lower and the installed the pump and did the upper after it would buy you a good 2 years<br /><br />i think the top edge is beveled so the seals dont tear going over it<br /><br />tommays

 

[ziggy]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

hi, still havn't ordered a speedi sleeve yet. ended up thinking up another question. <br /><br />did they(mercruiser) delete the need for a waterpump houseing cover oil seal. i got a new one and it has a void where you would think the oil seal would be at? if that is the case then that would elimnate the need for a speedy sleeve at that point.<br /><br />also you both talk about sleeveing the groove at the top by the slpines last, before i put the sleeve on. i went to the store today and felt a speedi sleeve. they are .012" thick. so if my shaft dia. at the top is .859 or .860" (can't decide which) + .012, that's .872 on the outside. the shaft down by the pump is larger in dia. .075. it would seem to me that .875 will pass over .872 with .003" to spare.

 

[ziggy]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

achris, thanks for carifiying the oil seals in the upper for me. that made my day, the easy one to get at is the one causing the wear it appears,,, that seems like good news........

 

[tommays]

Re: lower drive shaft, oil seal wear ?

<br /><br /><br />i thought the shaft was the same size above the gear box ??<br /><br />tommays