Bravo One Leak
 

I just purchased a 2000 32 sunsation on the East Coast last week & before the purchase was made I had a marine Surveyor do a engine & drive inspection. Pressure checked drives. Surveyor said drives were ok. I drove 1100 miles home and put boat away, two days later I found small oil puddle under port drive, appears to be coming from behind prop. Is it possible to actually perform drive pressure test and not catch this? Is this most likely output shaft seal? How difficult is this to replace? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Bravo One Leak
 

There are 3 places fluid can leak from there. As you said, 1 place is the prop shaft seals. Another is the drain plug gasket. Finally, there is a large "O"-ring around the bearing carrier. The easiest to replace would be the drain plug washer. The other 2 require removing the bearing carrier, replacing the seals and "O"-ring , then re-setting the lower bearing pre-load with a new crush collar.

Re: Bravo One Leak
 

it is possible that when the pressure check was done the little o-ring gasket that fits around the fill plug fell out. i would first pull the prop off and then unscrew the plug and make sure the gasket is there. they are ussualy blue or yellow. hopefully that is your problem. make sure you put a drain pale under the drive or you will have a mess on your garage floor. let us know what you find. - Andrew

Re: Bravo One Leak
 

Thanks for your advise...I will pull the prop on Sunday and check, hopefully it is just the plug gasket. I will let you know! Thanks again.

Re: Bravo One Leak
 

This is the tester is use.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Outdr...QQcmdZViewItem

Re: Bravo One Leak
 

More than likely it's just oil that leaked out when they put the plug back in, I would wait to see if it keeps on leaking before I got to worried

Re: Bravo One Leak
 

If the surveyor was any good he would have looked at the magnet on both top and bottom as well as psi test. If he did pull the bottom plug it could have been oil in the exhaust area around the bearing carrier.. and would drain out over time. I would check the drain plug, to make sure it has a good gasket and that it is tight, then clean the area with paint thinner.. wash and blow dry it out.. then see if more oil comes out. That is assuming you have compressed air available. I use a squirt bottle with paint thinner in it to clean.. works pretty good.

And I do have adapters available from my oil fill pump kit that can be adapted to a gauge for psi/vaccum testing.. If you wanted to test it yourself. I usually put 12 lbs on the drive for 24-48hrs and see if it goes down at all. I use a big 3" gauge that makes it easy to see any movement. I can see temp flucuations as the building cools a few degrees, and heats back up. Usually a leak shows up with in a few hours if the drive isnt sealed properly.. hope this helps..

Dick

Re: Bravo One Leak
 

Dick,
I know you dont like my pressure tester. I know how it is for you older guys. You need the BIG gauge to see properly. :D :D

Re: Bravo One Leak
 

if you put 15 psi on the drive off the bat isn`t there a risk of seating the seals and creating a false go in the pressure test?