I've just finished replacing the upper shaft seals and the oil seal on the drive shaft in the upper unit of my old MC-1 as they were leaking oil on the ground when on the boat, and confirmed by pressure test.
When I disassembled the upper drive I discovered a surprising and disappointing amount of rust stains on both the bearing rollers and race of all the bearings, and also on the face of the gear teeth. I'm assuming that this was either caused by fresh water getting into the drive and 'stewing' for the twelve years that the boat sat idle prior to me buying it last year, or salt water leaking in past the above seals in the last six months that I've had it? Either way, it was enough to convince me that buying a new SEI drive was the most sensible way to proceed.
I already had new seal sets for the Mc1 so I figured I might as well patch it up as a spare drive. I acknowledge that its probably not going to last for too many hours with the rust stains on the bearings, but it will be better than nothing if the SEI doesn't play ball in the future.
When I was replacing the seals I noticed quite deep grooves worn by the seal lip in both shafts. This was obviously what was causing the leak. When i reinstalled the new seals I made sure that I put them in ever so slightly in a different position so they would be running on fresh metal, and so far they are holding 15psi.
My question is, is it normal to expect severe scoring of the seal race surface on an (old) drive that has only done 300 hours, or would this have been accelerated by water in the drive? The shafts themselves didn't show any obvious signs of rust.
All seals in the complete drive have now been replaced except prop shaft. When they leak the drive will become an anchor
When I disassembled the upper drive I discovered a surprising and disappointing amount of rust stains on both the bearing rollers and race of all the bearings, and also on the face of the gear teeth. I'm assuming that this was either caused by fresh water getting into the drive and 'stewing' for the twelve years that the boat sat idle prior to me buying it last year, or salt water leaking in past the above seals in the last six months that I've had it? Either way, it was enough to convince me that buying a new SEI drive was the most sensible way to proceed.
I already had new seal sets for the Mc1 so I figured I might as well patch it up as a spare drive. I acknowledge that its probably not going to last for too many hours with the rust stains on the bearings, but it will be better than nothing if the SEI doesn't play ball in the future.
When I was replacing the seals I noticed quite deep grooves worn by the seal lip in both shafts. This was obviously what was causing the leak. When i reinstalled the new seals I made sure that I put them in ever so slightly in a different position so they would be running on fresh metal, and so far they are holding 15psi.
My question is, is it normal to expect severe scoring of the seal race surface on an (old) drive that has only done 300 hours, or would this have been accelerated by water in the drive? The shafts themselves didn't show any obvious signs of rust.
All seals in the complete drive have now been replaced except prop shaft. When they leak the drive will become an anchor
