blew a top cap on starboard drive...

dreamer · 07-09-2007, 01:47 PM

what can i expect for damage?

boats sittin in water a local marina till i can make arrangement to get her to the shop at my marina.....

what other parts broke... need replacing... look at... etc.

do i go thru the other drive too?... probably will anyways

why do i have drive fluid in bildge?... did it blowback or did the drive get starved then blow?

just preparing myself for a big bill after a weekend at the bay with some "friends" (freeloaders that chipped in nothin!)

vented..... feel better now

Doller Offshore · 07-09-2007, 01:53 PM

oh Ted, call John, he will tell you all about it. Was this the Cig? 800-376-1616...mindi

Wobble · 07-09-2007, 02:02 PM

the drive oil in the bilge is from the bad bearing cooking the oil and making it overflow the reserve bottle most likely

t500hps · 07-09-2007, 02:31 PM

A local guy blew his top cap a couple weeks ago. Called me looking for a replacement cap since he thought everything else would be fine.......I told him there was sure to be other damage. Everything in the upper was toast!!!! Good Luck, but just in case, expect the bill to include alot of parts.

RHC · 07-09-2007, 03:21 PM

Looks like the price of Booze just went up at the Mercury Lounge !! Sorry about your bad luck man!

RHC

GLH · 07-09-2007, 03:25 PM

Had that happen on XR's on the counter rotating drive.

I use to tighten the top caps every time I put in the water after that never had another problem.

The best solution I found was buying a rig with #6's however!

h20 toie · 07-09-2007, 11:44 PM

Mine blew last year on the port motor and everything was toast including the case

had them check the port drive and it was not looking so hot either, but at least the port didnt need a new case.

what sucked is that they had just been serviced within 5 hours and there wasnt any metal in the oil with serviced

Griff · 07-10-2007, 02:41 AM

Plan on a new upper. Lower will probably be ok.

J-Bonz · 07-10-2007, 03:02 AM

For a quick turn around, call Jim jr. at Dubberts.....
Jr.

sommerfliesby · 07-10-2007, 06:12 AM

In order to crack that cap, your gears probably "jumped" around in the case. Considering you have hardened steel gears in an aluminum casing without much tolerance, you can probably count on a new upper. Price from Mercury (I believe a reman) is about $3000...hopefully you can find it cheaper.

Last year this happened to me...blew it into three pieces and leaked gear lube like the Exxon Valdez. I had both drives pulled and taken down, had all the gears re-indexed and bigger vertical shafts installed. Total cost was around $6k.

Think I'll take GLH's advice and check my top caps in the future...although mine blew while coming up on plane in 4-5 footers...too much throttle while the boat struggled up a wave and BOOM. Good luck, hope you get a fast turnaround.
mike