bravo leaking
 

was out yesterday and all was well until we stopped and anchored at the sand bar for about 2 hours had drive up 100% during that time when we left i had 8 inches water in bilge pumped it out looked everything over all was well again got home and checked shift cable and driveshaft bellows all looked good so today i put plug in and filled bilge with water and low and behold the leak appeared, not what i expected, its leaking around the transom assembly was not ready for this, i have mechanical skills and maintain my boat myself but this is uncharted territory any help would be greatly appreciated, steve

Got any pictures so we can see where your talking about

Could be leaking at the Gimbal? Around the Steering/Gimbal pin, Is there "side to side" slop in the outdrive?

i tryed to snap pics as it was leaking but they did not come out, its literally coming out between transom assembly and transom of boat, as for play in drive up and down is tight side to side is maybe half inch at most i was not sure if i just sealed the joint from drive to boat transom if that would work, thats where it is coming from

Sounds like that is worth a try, does the caulking that is there now look bad

you can try caulking the joint between the assembly and transom but that really isn't the right way to fix it long term........and you don't want to know what is the "right" way.




(remove drive, remove engine, remove transom assembly, re-assemble with new bedding.....you might be able to remove the drive and loosen the transom assembly enough to gap it out a 1/2 inch and fill the void with 4,200, then re-tighten to seal the leak)

u are right thats rediculous, as for visable sealant i see nothing, i figured it was behind transom, i have some 5200 that i'm gonna try even though that stuff sucks to work with, and hope for the best thanks abunch for everyones advice,


steve

just remember, your transom is wood.....you don't want to chance water getting in there!!!!

on my last boat this was the first indication I got of a rotten transom. Started leaking water inbetween the transom assy and the transom. Upon further investigation found that the soft transom had allowed the mounting hardware to have enough give to leak

Chances are it's been leaking for awhile now. I wouldn't try to bandaid the problem and possibly make the transom worse than it already might be. Sooner or later your going to have to do it the right way anyway. Has the transom assy ever been off the boat? What year boat? Use that 5200 and theres another job to do later, removing it, besides looking like crap. Maybe just silicone it to get thru the end of the season but now that its wet between there it probly won't stick where it needs to. Sounds like that side to side slop needs attention anyway. 1/2" play? In the steering? Salt water boat? The bottom transom bolts are probly rotted off.

as far as i know everything is factory sealed other than routine maintance, and i did use silicone instead of 5200 like you said it prob would of looked like crap, boat is a 2000, never noticed any water in bilge before always stayed dry, i plan to work it over good this winter just hopping to get the rest of summer out of it, first owner used in salt some, bought it 6yrs ago with 100hrs and has been fresh since my ownership, only 2nd owner, and yes i plan to address steering this winter with full imco dual ram setup anyway

I would bet you have a bellows leak and when you lift the drive it stretches the boot and that is why you filled with water under those circumstances. When the drive is down it pushed the crack/slice in the bellows back together and it leaks slower. I say this partially because I had a similiar situation with a slice in the bellows. I swore up and down it wasn't leaking but when I pulled it apart it was sliced.

A leak past the foam gasket that sandwiches between the transom assembly and the back of the transom would be pretty rare. If that was a common problem there would be a lot of sunk boats in the world.

It goes without saying that you have made sure the TA is tighlty snugged up against the transom right...

P.S. - if you do have a problem it is worth spending a couple weekends pulling the engine. A great learning experience, and after you do it once you realize how easy it is (unfortunately I had to find this out the hard way).

P.S.S. - if the bellows is bad replace the gimbal bearing as well because it will be destined to fail prematurely, and inopportunely.

I had a bad gimble ring and noticed some water leaking from the transom assembly. The water turned out that t was leaking from the steering pin and would only leak when drive was full to port.