I posted earlier about concerns with water in the oil of my 1986 ALPHA drive. This drive has never been apart except to change the water impeller. I did a pressure test and the pressure went from 15 psi to 12 psi in 5 days. If the drive needs to be resealed, does anyone have someone they would reccommend ? I live in Western NY and I'm not confident in any of the MERC dealerships here. What do you guys think ?

David,
If you are getting water in the oil, you most likely wont find a leak by a pressure test. You must vacuum test it. If I remember Alpha drives correctly, there are 3 posiible places it can suck water in from. As with all drives, first is the prop shaft seals. That seal consists of 2 lip seals that face each other. One keeps the oil in, the other keeps water out. Alphas have another double lip seal. It is where the lower vertical shaft goes into the upper housing, like when you replace the impeller. If you look under the upper housing you will see the seals. Lastly, under the impeller is a plastic housing that has 2 seals in it. They can suck water as well. I would recommend replacing the whole housing when replacing the impeller.

Have it resealed, it's a whole lot cheaper than gears.

The shift shaft seal is a problem area on the Alpha drives.

Send it over to Chris at Sterndrive Specialties in Central Square, NY (Oneida Lake) He's one of the best.

As mentioned above, a vacuum test is the best way to test.

Thank you for the replies so far!
BIGGUS, do you have a phone number for Chris at Sterndrive Specialties?

Sterndrive Specialties

Chris Martin

315-623-7642

That is not a significant pressure drop, and a few degrees drop in ambient tempature could account for that. Usually when water is found in a unit without much pressure drop, we find that the problem was a bad or missing gasket on the drain or vent screw. Often when draining and refilling a unit one gasket will stay with the screw while the other remains in the recess. And if (as often happens) the screws get exchanged, then one will have two gaskets while the other has none. I like to make sure to discard both old gaskets and replace with new ones when I do the change. --- Jer --- P.S. And Chris at Stern drive Specialists is the best!

Yup, ditto on the shift shaft. Not only does the seal go bad, it then eats the shaft seal surface on the shaft. Not expensive to replace both the seal and the shaft. Ditto on Chris too.

dont go staight to 15 psi on a pressure test you can seat the seals and get a false good, instead presurize in incriments of 5 psi to 15, same with vacuum. soapy water can be used to isolate failed seal for peace of mind. it is best to replace all seals once. this procedure should not cost more than 325 dollars when performed by a professional using mercury parts. the only additional cost would be that sometimes the u-joint yoke wears a groove and should be replaced, this does not sound like your situation because you did not mention oil in u-joint bellows. the shift shaft seal failure is usually atributed to improper assembly in the past where the felt washer, and steel bushing are left out causing the shift crank to wear into the seal. this is limited to the alpha one not the gen two.

Outdrive man,
Everything you said is very true but just wondering what labor rate you go buy... merc gets 1.5 just to R&R the drive, seal kits are about 100.00 retail for both plus drive lube which is 36.00 retail then you have at least 1 - 2 hours disassembly clean and inspect if not more depending on the cond of the unit ect. the only way any one could do it at 325 total is to do it real quick not clean parts ect after parts your talking 225 labor I've been building drives for almost 25 yrs and I'm sorry but there is no way I could reseal a upper and lower for 325.00 5 yrs ago I was charging 300 ea upper/ lower plus parts... to do it right there is no way anyone could do it for 325 and I would be very scared if some one did do it that cheap..... because they would have to be cutting corners and rushing a job that shouldn't be...um not the cheapest out there but when I put a drive together it stays together and its done right how could you do it that cheap???? sorry about the book but by saying that you make the pros look bad when we charge more and thats not the case