Stringer locked up ... kinda'

[southkogs]

To my fellow OMC "keep it alive" guys:

I took the boat out this past weekend, and after idling out of the marina (no wake) I went to throttle up. When I did, the engine gave me a little squeak (literally sounded like a belt slipping) and the then died. I tried to start two times, but just got the starter (maybe solenoid) "click."

Swam her in, loaded up and went home. In the driveway, I tried starting and it kicked up right away and would shift (no problem) in forward and reverse. Stopped the engine. Started one more time, and it squeaked and stalled out again.

The plan (in the next week or two - gotta' busy week coming up) is to:

1. Remove the stern drive & try starting
2. If the boat still does it with the drive removed, I'm going to assume I've got a problem in the Intermediate housing
3. If it works fine with the stern drive off, I'm going to assume I have a problem in the upper gear case

Does that make sense as an approach? Or is there some more obvious plan of attack?

I suspect my problem is in the intermediate as I'm pretty confident in the drive itself (it seems to be shifting fine which kind of eliminates the lower unit in my mind), and the intermediate is the thing I've paid the least attention to since I got the boat. That said - is the intermediate complicated to rebuild? And if I can locate a replacement are they different between HP ratings? (I'm digging through my manuals but haven't figured it out yet).

Any suggestions are welcome and thanks in advance.

 

[doral1985]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda'

Dosent sound good, theres not much in the intermediate to go wrong, your ball gear shaft with a couple bearings. you should be able to pull the outdrive back far enough to clear the ball gears after you take the trunion caps off without pulling the cable through. a rachet strap to your ski tow and a block of wood to set it back from outdrive. you wont have any water flowing to engine so dont run it too long to overheat engine/manifolds. that will at least give you a starting point. keep us posted on your findings.

 

[Redrig]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda'

Nevermind. you already ruled out my suggestion

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda'

you wont have any water flowing to engine so dont run it too long to overheat engine/manifolds. that will at least give you a starting point. keep us posted on your findings.

Can still run a hose straight to the thermostat housing and run it.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda'

...ball gear shaft with a couple bearings...

That's actually what I'm worried "pooched" on me

Takin' the drive off is not a big deal. I can do that pretty quickly anymore. It'll be a week or so before I get to take a good look at it ... got a broken car to figure out first. When it rains ...

Thanks y'all. Any more suggestions are welcome.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Well ... it's not "kinda'" anymore. The upper gear case is seizing up. Here's what I did:

I took the sterndrive off the boat and started her up. Kicked right up with no problem and idled fine. So, I've eliminated a problem in the intermediate drive or the engine itself.

Took the sterndrive off, pulled the upper off the lower and tried to turn the ball gear by hand ... no joy. My experience with them is that they should turn by hand reasonably, correct?

Lower energizes and seems to spin just fine F-N-R, so I'm pretty sure we're still good there.

Question #1: I have an upper gear case that turns fine by hand. However, the top of the shaft (see illustration below) is broken off. My boat doesn't have true course steering; it uses the through transom rack and pinion gig, so that upper gear isn't an issue (I don't think). Can I run on this gear case? Is it stupid to rig it up and run it? I think it was running missing this piece when the PO had it.


Question #2: I have a couple of upper gear cases. How difficult is it to rebuild one? I'm a mediocre mechanic on a good day, but I don't mind doing the work. I'm reasonably confident I can find another upper, but if it's not crazy and doesn't require any special tools - I'm interested in trying to rebuild what I already have.

Thanks all.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Bump

 

[southkogs]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

One more BUMP ... please ...

 

[Redrig]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

It has been a while since I have been in my upper and I cant specifically remember that shaft (doesnt the dipstick go down into it ?)
but I would think you are fine running on that one as long as you dont have tru course which you dont, I think that rod just gives the tru course steering a pivot point.

I would give it a shot, get it all assembled and fire it up in the driveway, do a pressure test, ect.

and sorry, cant answer the upper sealign question, I hope to get that accomplsihed this winter.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Thanks RED - That's the direction I was leaning. Wanted someone to conspire with me so it wasn't all my fault later

The ball gear on this unit is looking a little rough, so this is only a fix while I figure out the next step. I'd like to rebuild so that I can get past being afraid of the stupid gear case, but don't want the boat completely dry docked all summer with it's gears spread all over a workbench.

Stay tuned!

 

[southkogs]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Providence has smiled on my ole' boat! The upper gear case ran just fine, and honestly I think better than the original one that was on there. We mainly wanted to get out and swim some today (100? here in Middle TN) - so we really didn't run real hard on the way out. Got out on the lake, ran about a mile and a half, dropped anchor and enjoyed some relief in the water. She ran so nice on the way out, I decided to go up on plane for a bit, so did a 1/4 mile run a little under WOT and it ran real nice.

A little later we went ahead and ran on plane for quite a while. It still takes the ole' girl a bit to get on top of the water (she's over 40 and a little heavy - like the skipper) but once she's up she runs nicely.

We're in the clear Red!

 

[Redrig]

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

Re: Stringer locked up ... kinda' - UPDATE

glad to hear it ! Well done