gotime34

Saturday I had been out on the boat all day. On the way home I was cruising at 3200RPM and the RPM's suddenly shot up on the left engine. I shut it down and jumped into the engine compartment. I pulled the dipstick to the left drive and it spit oil out immediately, and the oil was all the way to the top of the dipstick. I wiped it off and stuck it back in and it was still all the way to the top, but I did not see any water (not milky at all). I jumped into the water and turned it by hand and there was no grinidng, but it fealt really loose. I was thinking a shaft broke since there was no grinding, but why would the oil be up in the resevoir. Could I have gotten water in? Also I ran aground twice last week while on vacation with the boat, nothing major, just hit a little mud at low tide and powered up a little to get out of it, could this have something to do with it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

GOODT

hi gotime
the reason oil level would climb is very simple if a bearing heated up,if a shaft broke the lube would not circulate causing it to overheat and expand then to the bottle and then over flow, sounds fairly major, ive heard on another thread that for it to overflow you most have water in it but thats not true, all it has to do is heat up !!!!!!!

Lofty

GOODT is correct, on a TRS the heat causes the oil to rise dramatically. Sounds like you broke the vertical shaft. Is this your counter rotating side? Either way, it's more than likely the vertical shaft has sheered just above the bearing. It will have dropped and taken out the pinion gear also. When you get it fixed make SURE the lower housing is not damaged around that bearing. Also I've seen some shops try to replace just the bearings and not the race because it's kind of a bugger to get out. If the housing is even slightly damaged around the bearing throw it away and get another. It will fail again within hours if you don't.

Call BAM, they're great with TRS's or you can find some nice re-built ones here on the board. I happen to know Brian Bunch (p33) has a pair completely rebuilt, painted and ready to go.

gotime34

Thanks for the help guys. Lofty, what would cause the vertical shaft to break?? This drive was just rebuilt at the end of last season after it blew, and this is the third time we've lost this drive (in 2 seasons) on the same side, the counter rotating side. Any ideas what could be causing this, or is it common to blow the counter rotating side. The place that rebuilt it is a pretty reputable offshore advertiser, but I think I'll give BAM a try.

Lofty

The counter rotating side is the most common one to go. The reason is the pinion gear is on the fron end of the shaft and it can move away from the mating gear. When the spacing changes a couple of things happen. One, the loading changes one the vericle shaft bearing. Two, it can chip a tooth when it looses spacing.

If you've broken the same drive the same way (verticle shaft failure) it's more than likely that you have a bad housing and you shouldn't try and fix it again.

Lofty

These two came out of two different lowers but if you look close you'll see what happened. The reguion just below the break is where the bearing rides. The bearing shifted in the housing and failed. It got pretty hot and seazed. This caused the shaft to fail. The problem is that once this happens the bearing race spins inside the aluminum lower and ruins it. You can't get in it to fix it so you just have to throw it away. I've seen this over and over again and it's allways the same thing.

JCPERF

How did the boat run on your vacation?

gotime34

You wouldn't believe it if I told you Jeff...not one problem the entire trip (unusual is with my luck). And I ran the boat at least a few hours each day for a whole week. That engine runs awsome man. For once I had the boat running great, then I blow a drive, and with girls on the boat. Thats the worst cus they have no f*cking idea what an outdrive is or why its going to take 2 hours to get the rest of the way home rather than 20 minutes. Luckily we had plenty of beer left, but it was a long idle back. It could have been worse, it could have happened in the sound rather than a few miles from our marina. I'm just glad it wasn't the engines this time thanks to you. No biggy on the drive, a week or 2 and we'll be back in. How was that Manhasset bay run? Did you go in Phat Cats boat?

gotime34

Thanks Lofty, that gives me a better idea of what you are talking about. So basically I should get a whole new lower if that spot is owrn out. I work on industrial pumps and we throw housings away when the bearing fits are worn so I can understand that. Problem is if you I send it to someone to fix, are they gonna catch that?

JCPERF

I ran on OZZIES new 36 Nortech.Got it to go 141 past Phat Cat