water coming in WTF!!
 

I have a substancial amount of water coming in the boat. I was out yesterday and have to turn the bilge on like every hour or two and its a steady stream of water for like 30sec-min. Its a good amount of water. After further inspection yesterday it looks like the water is coming in above the coupler at what looks to be the steering or the shift linkage. Is there some sort of boot or seal there.

What drive setup? Yes, there should be a boot there...

twin bravos 1. Like I said ther eis the hole with the coupler or drive shaft then above is like a square whole where what looks like steering or shifting. I would like to say its probably coming in at a couple gallons an hour

bellows or steer shaft seal

After looking at at part fiche its it could be upper bellows. If its coming in here should I get new drive fluid as well

My guess is swivel shaft seal (steer seal like Obnoxus said)

look up jrmarine.com for more pictures/info. he has a method to fix it but i would just yank the engines and fix it the right way....

water in the bellows wont affect the fluid unless you also have an input seal leaking.

if the leak is above the drive shaft it isnt that bellow...

ok thanks I didnt think so. From what I could see its coming in above that, some it was dripping down into the coupler area though so Just wondering if enough water could have drained down into the drive somehow

Could be, But really hope and dont wanna yank the engines at this point.

well - like I said, JRmarine.com offers an entire kit to fix it from the outside without pulling the engines.

For those of us that have been down the engine removal path before - I just think it is quicker.

You couldnt do the same thing by removing the drive and taking the gimbal housing off??

Well its going in tomorrow, so well see talked to guy on the phone he already tore this drive apart this year and seems to think its the bellows still. But I would think 4-5hours at least into an engine take out and reinstall. What would that be costing me to take the engine out and in then do this repair, vs buying the 52 buck kit

If you"re paying someone then use the kit!!

You can"t get to the swivel seal from the outside without cutting the housing like that kit does.

If a bellows is leaking it will leak UNDER the driveshaft.

ok thanks. Yeah its not below. And it was definitely worse with 3-4 people on back then noboy back there. So I guess we see.

Yep - normally with weight on the back the seal gets more water splashed on it and leaks more!

Also - coming down off plane when the water rolls up the back of the transom it lets more in.

Hopefully you get it sorted out cheaply....

yeah me too. I also noticed that if I lift up the hatch after running the right manifold where it meets the tip(the rubber connector) is a little wet and above that on the hatch is sprayed with water. This is what it was doing before this massive amount of water came in yesterday. I couldnt narrow it down till yesterday either. I check the manifold and nothing. So only I can think was the water was dripping down on to the drive shaft and it was wining it up.

Check the exhaust side of the system - I have had a one of those rubber exhaust boots split and blow water out at speed. It can go everywhere if that happens.

I've also had leaks in the captains choice system (if you have one) where the rotation rods went through the exhaust. Be sure you track down where it is coming from before spending much money on it.

I would say it is the steering shaft seal.

+1

+2

I've had the swival shaft nut back off on me causing the shaft to drop and the seal to unseat. once this happens, the seal usually dry rots and the shaft rusts. have to replace the shaft and seal. check to see if the gimbal ring is sitting lower than the other side. I used the jrmarine kit to fix it.

First pull the drive off and see if there is water in the u-joint bellows. This will help you determine where the leak is at.

Just went through this. Same symptoms. 1992 Bravo 1 and I could see with an inspection mirror the steering shaft and cap nut were in scary shape and leaking. I also had play in the steering and had lost a trim hose last season so I did the extreme and swapped the entire transom assembly with a new Mercrusier replacement. It included new gimbal ring, trim cylinders and swival shaft. $2300 part on-line and the engine needed to come out.

little extreme but thanks for giving me the high end, lol

little extreme but thanks for giving me the high end, lol