Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

[Redkneck]

Took a stump a little too hard at the lake today in my friend's boat. Cracked the housing all the way around as you can see in the pics. After I hit it, I could feel only a slight vibration and was thinking maybe I had to buy him a prop. I drove it slowly for another 10 minutes to get to the pier. I knocked it out of gear, but then was going to bump it into gear to get it just a little push to the dock. At that point it would not go into gear at all, like a sheared pin.

I really need some advice. What outdrive is this, if I can find one on ebay? I see terms like "alpha one" or "gen 2". The boat is a 85 or 86 Sylvan.

Secondly, is there a document or manual I can pick up to see how this thing goes together?

Last, do you think I screwed up the inside, since no doubt oil leaked out and water rushed into that crack?

Thank you all in advance. I'm a pretty fair mechanic, but not familiar with I/O drives for sure.

 

[Redkneck]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

PS - it is a 1.98R

 

[dwco5051]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

A complete rebuilt upper gear case will run about 700 bucks. The lower gearcase may still be ok but only a teardown and inspection would verify that. From the looks of it the failure to go back in gear might be a result of misalingnment of the shift rod due to the crack. If the oil comes out clean with no water or a lot of metal shavings it might be ok but a least I would replace the top seal due to it running slightly out of kilter and making vibrations. Another option would be to find a used upper housing or a used housing only and trade usuable parts for damaged. This is not a beginners job but could be done by someone with a fair amount of mechanical knowledge and the FACTORY ONLY repair manual.

This will give you an ideal of what you are getting into on a 25 year old boat. I take it your buddy did not have hull insurance. Search around and you might find a used boat for sale with a good outdrive and a blown engine or a crappy rotted hull for a few hundred and switch the outdrives and bury whats left over someplace.

 

[Redkneck]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure exactly how involved the upper unit was. We did drop the lower unit for impeller replacement and it seemed pretty straight forward. I think I understand that this is an alpha one gen 1 unit. There is a housing for one on ebay for $160, was wondering if that might be the easiest way to get it fixed, or if the removal of the bearings and such was really complicated. I have no idea what the upper unit guts looks like, but would definitely buy a manual, and I have a machine shop, which always comes in handy for making tools and such.

 

[jopes]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

Personelly, it's a older boat I would look into a unit from sei instead of trying to repair that one.

 

[scooper77515]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

you are a good guy, trying to fix what you broke.

Many guys would give it back and deny anything. "It was fine when I drove it last!"

I would be proud to be your friend and loan you my boat!

 

[Redkneck]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

you are a good guy, trying to fix what you broke.

Many guys would give it back and deny anything. "It was fine when I drove it last!"

I would be proud to be your friend and loan you my boat!

I could use a boat this next weekend, we could be friends by then, lol......

Seriously though he's my best friend since HS graduation 20 years ago, he's not worried about it, neither am I, but I would like to get it fixed pretty soon. If it was a new mastercraft I would be puking right now!

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

Ebay drives are a gamble. Myself I would go with a new SEI.

 

[Redkneck]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

I totally understand that, but neither of us wants to spend 50% of the value of the boat on the drive. Plus he wants to sell it next summer anyway, and I wouldn't buy anything like that on ebay without some type of guarantee, unless it was dirt cheap.

I did download the manual off the link here, and decided there's no way i'm going to attempt to swap housings out, a little more involved than I care to get into for no more money i would save.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

Buy an assembled upper with a 1.98 ratio. Flush the lower unit with kerosene before assembly. Fill the drive with new fluid and do one more fluid change after you run it. Be sure all the water is out. If you hit that hard, how did you not take a hunk out of the lower?

You need an alpha 1 gen 1. Or you could use a pre alpha if you want to.

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

Ebay drives are a gamble. Myself I would go with a new SEI.

Exactly! $1400 for a COMPLETE BRAND NEW drive, with a 3 year no fault warranty (you can even hit that same stump again, red) is a NO BRAINER. Sold right here on iboats. No special tools required. jst you an your buddy to lift the busted one off and the new one into place. Oh, they do ship them in two pieces, so you'd have to put the upper on the boat, then install the lower to it.

 

[Redkneck]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

If you hit that hard, how did you not take a hunk out of the lower?

No clue, hard hit though. I got out of the creek channel, and was getting into really shallow water when i gave it a good thrust - big mistake.

 

[picklenjim]

Re: Please help me. Busted my buddy's outdrive.

That's the second one on here in a month that broke like that. I would just have the lower inspected which is possibly fine and get one of these uppers.
http://www.sterndrive.cc/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=MercruiserAlphaUpperSterndrive