Was playing out on the river the other evening and while going slowly through some shallow water hit something with the prop. Mercruiser 4.3 Alpha 1 88 with laser 2 prop. Engine still ran fine, but boat didn't go any further under its own power. Had the time to work on it today. seems to go into forward reverse and neutral fine, BUT in gear, can turn prop BOTH directions. Granted the "wrong" direction was harder, but definately NOT good. so I drained gear lub... looked good to me - no metal. pulled the outdrive, everything up top looked fine. Then opened upper gearcase and looks great in there. separated the lower and upper units and the lower unit and drive shaft is cleanly sheared a little below the splines that engage the upper half. luckily some gentle tapping dropped the 2" piece of the shaft out of the upper. The splines themselves look fine, just the shaft is snaped cleanly in two - almost like it was cut. I was a little shocked - I would have assumed that any number of other things would have broken before the stainless steel driveshaft.
sooo..... I'm thinking options are: 1. replace the whole drive assembly, replace lower, or replace the driveshaft and whatever beargins / bushings need to be. I've never torn into a lower gearcase and do not have any of the specialty tools that I would appear to need based on the service manual, but it isn't clear to me just how tricky it would be to replace the driveshaft.
I'm leaning toward replacing the lower half with a used one or a reman. I would like to get this back in the water this week if possible. Any advice experience or thoughts? I don't have experience with outdrives, but am pretty handy and not afraid to try pretty much anything...
Thanks in advance for input!
sooo..... I'm thinking options are: 1. replace the whole drive assembly, replace lower, or replace the driveshaft and whatever beargins / bushings need to be. I've never torn into a lower gearcase and do not have any of the specialty tools that I would appear to need based on the service manual, but it isn't clear to me just how tricky it would be to replace the driveshaft.
I'm leaning toward replacing the lower half with a used one or a reman. I would like to get this back in the water this week if possible. Any advice experience or thoughts? I don't have experience with outdrives, but am pretty handy and not afraid to try pretty much anything...
Thanks in advance for input!
