What would you do?

[Fishtails]

I am having continious problems with one of my outdrives. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I had both of them gone over by a reputable repair shop this past spring. I paid $1000 each to have them repaired as needed, resealed, etc. My bill was $3400 total cause I had a few other things done as well. I was told I should be good for awhile but it hasn't worked out that way. The one drive was already back for service once cause I found the lower case to have a lot of water in it after being in the water for a month.

Got it back.....used it two long weekends and on the way into the weigh in station day #2 of the Wayne Pro am.....BANG!! Moter reved to 5-6k till I could pull off the throttle :shock: . Under pressure to get in (we were sitting in first place at the time and I didn't want to loose my day 2 box) I pushed the remaining motor full bore and made it in with 5 seconds to spare :shock: .

I smelled burning rubber, and after looking it over I determined I spun a coupler. Upon removing the drive a few days later, I found the driveshaft won't really spin. If I force it, it will spin but I hear a grinding noise from within. I call the shop and they said I should probably get a new drive. I sorta agree, but I just put a grand in this one.....why not tell me that sooner ? On top of it all, when it blew, it must have jammed up and spun the coupler also :x Now I gotta pull the motor and fix that too! I don't know that damage didn't occur when they got the seal wrong and I ran it with water in the drive this spring.....or they didn't get something wrong the second time they put it together?

Before we started doing all this mechanical work, short of a dead battery she was very dependable. Seems like this year however, we've opened up a can of worms and it's been one thing after another. They agreed to look it over and determine what went wrong, so I dropped it off Friday night. They may fix it again...I don't know? They are good guys, But I'm pretty darn frustrated at this point....what would you do?

[ray koziatek]

id talk with some mechanics familure with water intrusion falure,did you check for water the second time also? i would suspect high pressure (heavy load)bearings would fail first then due to excessive play the gears would eat themselfs up ,i bought a used alpha 1 for 750.00 with prop .If these are good guys they should make it right .Im justa plummer with 40 years of mechanic tinkering and 4 years of professional mechanic experence in the air wing.i would guess problem a caused problem b which caused problem c to occure,thats my guess.

[L&M]

Here we go again. Give me a call Rod. You should still have the #. And no I didn't do the work on it in case someone was thinking that.

[dieselhp]

Rod,

Sounds like something was out of alignment when it was installed. I say this because you didn’t say you had water in the oil the first time. Question is was the seal just put in wrong, was the seal wrong or the shaft moving after it was repaired.

You have to find out what went wrong in the out drive. Was it rust in the bearings, alignment or something bent? I have seen a lot of guys draw something in when it won’t go and 99% of the time you can’t do that. It will bend or break something. It could be just a bearing went bad and the rest is history. Unfortunately it is hard to tell if everything is in good shape unless you take it all of the way apart and look. I assume they did not do that, just spin it and if it feels smooth, and then you have to go with it.

The best thing is make them show you what locked up in the drive, then you can find out if it was something they did or something just went bad.

If it was me I would wait for the call and tell them you will right down to take a look. Make them show you the bad part and go from there.

Good luck

Rick

[Fishtails]

Yes.....I will call you Hank, Thanks! And nope....wasn't Hank or anyone on this board that worked on the boat.

And I should add that I have been very pleased with my Mechanics, even though we keep having this troubling issue. They are great guys and I know they are trying. That doesn't mean I'm not frustrated at this continuing problem though. Just not sure where to go from here? Have them repair again.... replace....I just don't know what to do? I just want it right....I can't keep blowing things up while fishing the Pro Am's ....they d'q you now even if your a couple seconds late reguarless of the reason Besides, this crap is seriously eating into my fishing time

Rick....The first time there was a little water in the oil....nothin too bad though. Then it was worked on and after a month I checked and it was like strait tap water. I never really understood what was wrong, but they sent some seal out to the machine shop to have it cleaned up and said it should be okay for awhile (didn't charge me anything). Two weeks later....KABOOM!!

The fact that I now have to pull the motor cause of this problem to replace the coupler is a real thorn in my side. Guess I just have to wait awhile to see what's wrong with it and go from there.

[Diversion]

When my boat had problems last summer, my mechanic told me that a coupler fails for one of two reasons, either excessive run time so its just worn out, or somthing is out of alignment. The alignment thing was what got me, resulting in the coupler failure. When you pull your motor, have the motor mounts, engine beds and stringers looked at carefully before you make any decisions, as the underlying factors that made your coupler fail need to be fixed as well, or your next coupler will fail again.

[ray koziatek]

am i the only one paying attention?

[Fishtails]

On the Alignment.....I had both motors aligned this spring. The stringers are good and the motors seem tight. I'm ordering the mercruiser alignment tool anyway to double check things myself before putting it back together.

It was the locked up outdrive at 3500 rpm's that caused the coupler to spin.

[dieselhp]

Rod,

When I said Alignment, I ment something in the out drive. I was thinking something like a shaft or bearing. Something that also would make the seal leak.

[chinook35]

Before you invest any more money in your old sterndrives,check out Stern Drive Engineering Inc. I replaced my Alpha 1 last year with one of this company's replacements and have been very satisfied. They sell a new,not rebuilt ,sterndrive for less than Mercruiser's rebuilts.

[Fishtails]

I checked them out....Wow, good prices and a warrenty! Only 200 bucks more than I paid to have mine redone and I've had nothin but problems.

Any other opinions on Stern Drive Engineering Inc? On the surface, it seems stupid to not buy one. I'm done putting $$ in mine, but I'm hoping they fix it so I can keep it as a spare :roll:

Thanks for the info.

[Fishtails]

Hey....thanks for the tip Chinook 35. My repair shop won't fix the drive....they said a bearing went and I'm SOL, so be that as it may, I ordered a new drive from SDE and a coupler. She Should be ready to fish by next weekend

[chinook35]

I hope you have as much luck with SEI as I have had. I am past break in hours with no problems at all. This company has re-established my faith in the marine industry.

[jimski2]

Are the engine mount stringers rotted out? If they are, all the repairs are useless till the engine mounts are firmed up. The old stringers have to pulled out and new Douglas Fir stringers installed and glassed in place. Also the stringers must be aligned properly when you put them in place.

[Fishtails]

Stringers have been looked over by myself and the repair shop and we feel they are in good condition.

This whole outdrive story has been a long, troubling and costly expierience. I wish I would have bought 2 new ones from the start. Live and learn. Assuming I'm happy with this one from SEI, I'll be ordering a second one during the off season.

Good news is the new drive from SEI arrived this morning

[dieselhp]

Get it done Rod and get that boat back in the water!

Glad to see it's moving along.

[salmonguy]

I replaced my Alpha drive with an SEI unit. $1200 delivered to my door! Installed it myself. Nice unit. Completely interchangeable with Merc parts.

[Fishtails]

So Far, I have 30 or 40 hours on the SEI drive and I'm very pleased with it!! So much so that I'm planing on ordering a second one for the port motor.

[TOP SECRET]

Rod,

What happened with this situation... did you get everything resolved?

Nick