JohnnyG

I've been dealing with a slow leak somewhere pretty much since I got this boat, but more so in the last few trips. Probably a few gallons for a day of boating which the bilge pumps handle with ease.

Anyway, the local shop couldn't find it and "tightened all the hoses" last week. So I figure I'd doublecheck a few more things this evening on the trailer and low and behold, the starboard main bellow (large one above the shifter bellow) was totally disconnected! The hose clamp was doing nothing and the hose is just sitting against the flange, which explains the totally variable amounts of water that seem to come into the boat recently. I could fit numerous fingers in there with light pressure. There was a pretty sticky grease in there on things too.

So, I can probably reconnect it and tighten it down pretty easily on my own. The question is, what potential damage has been done to the drive and/or hull from this problem over the last few trips and what (if anything) should be done in addition to re-tightening it to insure that the drive is not damaged and is in good shape?

The boat is only a month old or so and I can't believe this has happened.

John

oldandtired

The main problem will be the gimbal bearing. The drive itself should be fine. The water washes through the bearing and creates a rust problem, thus taking out the bearing. I'ld be upset if I were in your shoes. You probably have little recourse at this time since nothing is broken yet.

Rene

thunderusone

Pull the drive and grease the u joints. Visually inspect the gimble bearing and feel it with your fingers. If everything feels good, reinstall, pump fresh grease in and you are good to go. This will also give you an opportunity to remove any moisture inside the boot.

Audiofn

Bingo. Got to pull the drive IMO. May as well allign the drive while you are in there...

Jon

RaggedEdge

If by a month old you mean new and under warranty then take it back to the dealer and have them make the repair. Have them pull the drive and check the bearing, u joints, and for presence of water in the bellows. Make sure your complaint and what they find is well documented, then if you have a future problem you can fall back on the info for coverage. If your dealer is willing, get all the parts changed out now based on the water issue and save yourself the PIA of dealing with it again later on. It is a simple fix, but if you do it yourself you may lose out if further damage occurs in the future. Your dealer took you money, let them now take care of your problem.

Panther

I'd take the drive off to get the moisture out of the bellows. When you reinstall the bellows be sure to use merc bellows adhesive or 3M weather strip adhesive on the section that attaches to the transom assembly, then tighten the hose clamp.

Chances are you can get away with re-greasing the gimbal bearing to keep the water/rust away but you may want to change it now or at the end of the season.

The other problem that can develop is rust on your u-joint "yoke" which in turn makes the upper seal in the drive go bad.

Back4More

yep, what he said.

Strip Poker 388

iTrader: (6)

Did you pay some one to ck and tighten the clamps?

JohnnyG

I didn't pay anyone anything, as this issue has been handled from the start as a warranty issue (w/ either Mercury or Sunsation). Since Sunsation doesn't have local dealerships, I've been on the hook to find local shops that can deal with these problems.

I can easily state now that I would never return to Precision Marine in Huntington Beach for warranty or other work. They have repaired a few of my issues with the boat, but only after I found the problems myself and pointed it out to them. They had a shot at this leak and all they could come up with was "we tightened the hoses but didn't find anything". This is after I explained in detail to them the nature of the leak. I found a bellow completely disconnected after 5 minutes of poking around this last weekend after they had a shot at it. Also, they're the ones who ran my port motor hour meter up 30 hours with the ignition on and totally killed the port battery. (see: http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...ht=hour+meter).

The boat is back into the shop now that I've identified the root cause. It is a different shop, which I have much higher confidence in so far. They are Mecruiser certified repair facility. I showed them the issue when I dropped it off and they said that Mercruiser will likely cover the removal of the drive, inspection/replacement of the gimble bearing and inspection of the ujoint. That is how they are writing it up and proposing the work.

I'll keep everyone posted on this outdrive issue...

Strip Poker 388

iTrader: (6)

I would get them to send ya another hour meter