she broke. need advice.

[gotchacovered]

I've been tinkering with this 40 year old boat all spring and enjoying it by the way. it is a late 60's 120 mercruiser. Just about had all issues solved when I broke the gears in the upper housing. No water present and had oil. I guess I was running her too hard ( unless all the shifting issues I was having earlier might have damaged them). Anyway what all do I need to look at and replace? quite a bit of trash in the upper housing and smaller pieces in the lower. can the bearings be washed and reused? also adding up the parts the S.E.I replacement drive unit might be a smart way to go. whats your thought on this? thanks.

 

[mkast]

Re: she broke. need advice.

Do you have or have access to the tooling required to assemble the drive?
I suggest you replace it with a drive with a warranty.

 

[frustratedboater]

Re: she broke. need advice.

Not sure how much you want to sink into it, but if $$'s no problem anythings fixable (usually)! If you go that route, I'd replace the bearings, gears, seals, all! Any micro particle passing through/over the bearings, ruins them.

Another option is to replace the entire outdrive with an older alpha 1 'treasure' on ebay or something. It's worth looking into...

~FB~

 

[JustJason]

Re: she broke. need advice.

not sure if an SEI drive is going to mate up to something that old. May want to give them a call.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: she broke. need advice.

Howdy,

I'm pretty sure that's a Mercruiser "#1" drive. I believe SEI does have a replacement drive for that model. It'll probably be cheaper than rebuilding your "broke" drive.


Cheers,

Rick

 

[gotchacovered]

Re: she broke. need advice.

I found a new set of gears (n.o.s.) on ebay at a reasonable price. Wasn't easy, I guess this set was only used between 67 and 69. I'm gonna try to put her back together with the thought of getting the rest of season in and the put the new drive on in the winter when I can take my time. S.E.I. says their unit will work and they can ship it with short yoke that I need. the bearing on the vertical drive shaft is definitely junk, might take a chance on the rest. what are the chances I hurt the engine coupling when the gears broke?

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: she broke. need advice.

Depends on what it looks like I guess.

The coupler on my previous boat (66 MarkTwain/150 Mercruiser) lasted 39 years before it spun the splines out of it.

Since you have to pull the engine out to replace it (depending on how hard that is) I would just put it all back together and run it.

I'd replace it when you get the new drive though.

 

[gotchacovered]

Re: she broke. need advice.

I printed the manuals off this site a few months ago and I've read through the procedure. I'm in the machine shop business so I've been making the special spanner wrenches and removal tools as I go. I understand that the gears must have the proper clearances but I'm also notorious for " not seeing the whole picture". the gears in the lower housing will probably go next, I've done a bunch of welding on the skeg and it even had a crack that was leaking gear oil. it looks and feels good now however.