matthewr

Don't mean to hijack, but haven't seen you on in a while. Fuelin, are you coming down memorial day to KY Lake like you did last year?

later

i have fought a water leak in bilge since new, turned out to be my silent choice, seals on the shafts

later

FuelinAround

Yeh we are coming down for memorial day. Need to book somewhere to stay still. Ready to get ****ty in the cove

rumrunner29

Like the others have said, the pumps cycling once an hour is still more water in the boat than I want. I was in your shoes two years ago and it was the drive bellows that were torn and leaked. It was way worse when the drives were trimmed up, at full down it didn't leak much at all. The biggest problem is that eventually it will take out the gimbal bearing (it did mine). I only had a couple hundred in the repair for both drives. Me and a friend changed out all the bellows and gimbal bearings for both drives in an afternoon. keeping the drives trimmed down once you are home is good advice. I trim mine down everytime now and all winter long.

FuelinAround

With my new manning I don't have to trim my drives at all so this should help if it is the bellows and I get them fixed. Can you see physical cracks in the bellows? What damage do you look for?

Redhook98

Usually the bellows will be hard and stiff when they are getting old. Bring the drive all the way up and examine the bellows. When it is stretched out, you can see wear spots where the ribs rub against each other and any holes/tears. Keep in mind that not many bilge pumps will keep up (or keep up long) with a major malfunction in the bellows area. Boats sink that way. Once an hour for 10 seconds or so is a lot of water. Unplug your bilge pump for a few hours and watch how much water builds up. You will be amazed.

rumrunner29

Like Red said, trim it all the way up and look in there. The crack and hole in the bellows was very easy to see on mine. I agree that there is more water than you think leaking through. My float switch quit on the pump when mine leaked and I think if I had not have raised the engine hatch to check something and found out how much water was in the boat, it probably would have sunk...remember that too. If you know your leaking water and you don't notice the pumps kick on, you better check!!!!

zschaefer38

Everyone here is right dude. I been there and done that with my old Baja. If you got water coming in, it's more than you think. Unplug your bilge pump and trailer it in the water. Wait a few hours and have a few beers. Pull the boat out and pull the drain plug. Put a five gallon bucket under the water draining. Betcha you will fill it and your eyes will pop out of your head as it overfills. I would start with bellows, if you have a bravo drives, consider the steering pin seal in the fall. 10 dollar seal and cost 2k to fix due to pulling the engine.