Re: Outdrive Shower
I put the one on temporarily and so used a small drill bit to open up the port that the spedo tube goes through the transom (under the bracket) and routed it through there sealed with 5300.
on the deposits on the drive, the hard part is that since the drive shower literally washes the drive in the process of cooling it, you really don't know for sure whether the drive is running much cooler - could just be keeping the water from evaporating and depositing salts...
as an aside, I may not be an expert (I'm not), but every marine mechanic I've talked to and almost everything I've read pretty clearly indicates that the vast majority of drive failures could be avoided or at least delayed by taking care of it... running good, synthetic drive lube with the right viscosity (thicker will not flow as well and do a poorer job of carrying heat away from the bearing surfaces), marine spec so targeted to the specific conditions, change frequently if pushing the drive hard, make sure bellows not leaking (and putting water in the drive through the front seal), right amount of drive oil in it, and so on...
something else that an engine builder (almost excusively hot rod offshore, etc...) told me was that especially for alpha drives, a lot of heat in the drive is actualy put there by the exhuast routing through the drive. It would be interesting for someone with switchable exhaust to run both ways and see how much of a difference that really makes. it does certainly make some sense...
OH, and on my second upper drive half, I used a tap to slightly open up and rethread the upper port in the drive to 1/8" npt and just screwed the temp sending unit in the upper hole. I realize that the original plug won't fit right any more, but it seals just fine (pressure tested drive from botom hole before refilling with lube) and was convenient, etc... I'm just using cheap auto parts store themp units, but checked the accuracy with an oil bath to be sure they read right...
