hot water

My buddy has a new 35 Fountain with 575's and Bravo ones, it is going back to the dealer for its 100 hour service. This includes switching the drives, changing all of the fluids, including the blowers oil, changing the water pump impellers and a complete tune up.

Just to kindof keep his dealer in check he would like to get a general consensus on how long this should take.

Thanks for the info.

ToddW

Please explain, "Swithching the Drives" What do you mean?

hot water

That was text taken from his email to me.

What he is doing is swapping the port and starboard drives so that the props turn in. This also creates equal wear on the drives.

formula31

To test prop rotation fine, but----
I may be wrong but I would think that is a dangerous practice. I know you can run them either way. It just seems to me if the gears and bearings are broken in and happy running and loaded in one direction, is it smart to then run them opposite? Im from the "if its not broke, dont mess with it" school.

Other opinions?

hot water

You guys might be right about the drives, he is just following the dealers recommendations.

Getting back to the original question - how long should the dealer take to perform the above tasks.

splashandburn

I don't have any idea as to the service time for your buddy's motors but on another note -- how does he like the 575's now that he has put 100 hours on them?

hot water

It took alot of playing around with the setup to get the boat to handle and respond to my buddies liking, but now he is pretty happy.

There is a thread in the Fountain area called 35 Fountain Question for more info.

This should take you there

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...threadid=47284

Dennis Moore

4-5 hours of labor per engine/drive, dual engine boat 8-10 hours IF the mechanic finds no problems. This should include a compression test. New spark plugs, distributor caps do NOT need to be changed. Set timing and scan ECM. Rebuild the water pump and change fluids. Remove drives and grease U-Joints and Gimbal bearing.

He may find the engines slightly out of alignment and have to realign them. If the shop charges you for this, don't complain, the mechanic doesn't want to realign your engines (it's a pain in the ass). Just be happy that he told you about it and didn't simply reinstall the drives so he wouldn't have to mess with it!

Remember that most mechanics do not see many 575 engines so give them a break. He may need to get familiar with the set up. He may even have to read through your owners manual for the recommended procedure. I've been there, done that!

You are the one that chose an extremely limited production engine, don't be upset if the mechanic doesn't know the set up as well as the more common engines. Yours may be the only 575 that he ever works on and he has to learn everything he knows about them from your boat. Not a lot of info out there, these engines are not discussed in Mercruiser service school.

The most important thing any boater can do, particularly with a limited production engine such as the 575, is read the Mercruiser Owners Manual and the maintenance schedule inside. If the owner doesn't have enough ambition to at least do that, then he is partly responsible for some of the problems that he may have. Know as much as possible about your engine/boat before you have any work done by a dealer. It makes life easier for a boater and the dealer!

Good Luck
Dennis Moore
Mercruiser Master Mechanic

hot water

Dennis, thanks for the reply I have forwarded your message to my buddy.

blue thunder

Sound advise Hot Water. I just wanted to comment on switching the drives. I am about to do that on 1988 bravos after testing this weekend spinning the props in. They have spun out since new in 1988. The boat was much faster, mores stable and had a great feel with them spinning in. Low speed handling was poor. I tested switching the props and running the drives in reverse, but with switch drives to make the change permanent. Unless I am missing something here, switching the drives to change prop rotation will not change wear patterns of gears or load bearings differently. The drives will still be spinning the same way as always, just the props will do so on the opposite side. Am I off base there?

Hot Water, from my limited experience with changing prop rotation, I'd say if he has a steeped hull it won't work well, otherwise it may be worth a try.

Dave