Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

[thrillhouse700]

We are not very sure of what the previous maintenance was on this thing, Its my buddies boat but it was co owned. If someone could point me in the right direction as to what I need to replace it would be great.

We found the drive boot torn allowing water entry. The drive selector shaft looks chewed up I cant find it on Iboats part list. This is the first boat drive I have worked on so go easy on me and please pardon my ignorance.

I don't think the drive has ever been taken off. As per another thread on here we had to "Tony Danza" it off.

Also how to I determine what motor and drive unit is in this boat so I can order parts accordingly?

 

[SeaVue]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

Need a little info about what type of boat it is and maybe a picture of the motor. Also I'd take a picture of the entire drive and post it. That might help you get some of answers. Good luck!

 

[myoldboat2]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

hi, that looks just like the late model I drive on my mercruiser 140. but you need to be sure...

write down the engine and sterndrive serial numbers.
go to the mercruiser manuals thread in the adults only forum here on iboats.
look through some of the manuals--in the very beginning they list models and years by serial number.

you can accomplish the same thing by looking at the index to parts diagrams online--they generally list by model, year and serial number.

but doublecheck drive parts--someone may have frankensteined your sterndrive.

get the right manuals and read up on engine and drive maintenance.

order the gasket sets you need. i would replace any elastic stopnuts you've removed (trim cylinders, drive mount).

change out the raw water pump, assuming it's the plastic base kind in the bottom of the gear housing (lower unit).

the sterndrive should be pulled once each year to lube the coupling splines with the right spline grease. i'm learning this the hard way (you have to pull the engine to change the coupler if you don't maintain it right and you lose it).

get er done, stock up on beers and enjoy the boat!

 

[cr2k]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

Just from the pix I would have to say areas of concern would be:

1. Engine coupler (notice the "pointy" splines) Engine removal required for this.
2. Gimbal bearing for sure (rust)
3. U-Joints (check for slop and smoothness)
4. Corrosion behind shift slide needs to be cleaned for proper movement.
5. Short shift cable.
6. Bellows, both shift cable and drive.

Shift shaft is Sierra/NAPA PN 18-2169 and bushing kit 18-2622

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

My engine serial number is 4331979, my drive serial number is 4437852

The motor is a mercruiser l6 165hp, in a 1975 omega tri-hull.

Here is a pic of the drive

According to what you guys told me, this should be the coupler I need
http://www.iboats.com/mall/partfind...gd_poid=110300&gd_row=14&**********=353248336

as for the gimble bearing I get two possible part numbers 18-2101, and 18-2100, one without trim sender and one with, I'm not sure what that is.

Either way I think I have this correct, thanks. Motor will come out next week sometime.

 

[ziggy]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

you've got about the same thing i got pretty much.

your gonna be doing about the same thing i did to mine too after i got it.

1st thing ya gotta have is the service manual. the oem one. i believe available in the adults only sticky at the top of the i/o forum. for my 75 i use #2. you will too unless it's a 78 then i think you'll need 3 and 4.

i can't see the splines well enough to know if you need a drive shaft and coupler or not. if the splines are pointy, on the shaft or on the coupler, then yes, that needs addressing. other than that. my list of items replaced was like this.

gimble brg. part # 30-60794A4
ujoints
drive shaft bellows
shift cable and bellows and slide
water hose
drive gear yoke
ft. seal for the drive
drive gear yoke brgs.
shift shaft in the bellhousing
shift shaft lever
shift shaft seal
water pump impeller and housing
very bottom seal in the upper

use oem parts if you can. they may be more expensive, but they are proper quality. my example of misfit aftermarket parts was my shift shaft in the bellhousing. i got a glm version. w/the lever. when assembled. you could hardly turn it by hand. i'm sure the cable wouldn't have moved it. i had to file the shift shaft lever till i had the clearance to operate it. imho i shouldn't have to have done that. in the end. i went and bought the oem part. low and behold. it bolted up and worked proper right out of the bag. the way it was supposed to have worked the first time but i just had to save a dime. in the end. i still have the brand new glm part in my basement. the oem one is on my drive and works just wonderful.

your gonna need good hand tools. + some merc tools too. some of the ones i had to buy were the spanner to remove the retaining nut on the drive. exhaust bellows tool. shift cable socket, alignment bar, ujoint end guide. mechanic tools that i had to buy were torque wrench, ujoint press, out of some large cheap needle nose pliers i made a snap ring tool. some tools that i rented were 3 jaw puller to pull the gimble brg. mercruiser shim tool for the drive gear shimming. you'll need at least three different greases, mercruiser 2-4-c, ujoint and gimble brg. grease, and spline grease. oh, and i made a drive pressure tester out of an old tire gauge and a mercruiser lub fill pump to pressure test the drive after seal replacement.

be carefull when removing the nails when your going after removing the bellhousing. there probably what is genereicly called small nails. the part is nla. don't break them if possible. there not just regular ol nails.

ya might do a search of threads started by ziggy (me) in the archives. i got my rig in sept. 06. i think and posted up quite a few questions of how to go doing all these deeds. i got much help too. some of the questions i ask may pertain to what your getting ready to do.


maybe ya could resize them pics. great pics, but they're so big i gotta scroll left and right to see what i wrote.. and read what others write too..

 

[bigskiohio]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

reset your display settings they were just fine on my small laptop.

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

Wow that is one hell of a write up, thank you very much. I have two manuals already that was the first thing I found when I searched, but I also wanted some opinions from you guys that have been there already.

I figure we will replace the coupler anyways just because we don't want to have to pull the engine twice, it was hard enough finding someone with a forklift haha.

We also have to rip up the deck and possibly the transom so we have a very long ways to go. Especially since money is a bit tight so this will be a project for maybe the next year.

Thanks again.

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

Hey ziggy I read the post in the adult section about U joints, is there a generic u joint we can use on our drive like in that thread?

 

[ziggy]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

is there a generic u joint we can use on our drive like in that thread?

i really don't know the answer to your question other than what's posted up in that thread. my guess is that the numbers in that thread will work for us too. i just went and looked up three different ujoints for ours and alpha1 genII. the part numbers were the same except for the last number. from the pics of the ujoints, the notable difference was the grease zerk. one i looked at had two choices in the package, one only had one choice, the last had a different looking zerk than i've seen. that was on a late 90's genII.
like i said. i've been going with the oem part. which is what i've got in my rig. the oem part. pricey, yes. but then i knew i had the right part. that thread wasn't posted when i did mine. if i had to do it over, i might consider using aftermarket since there don't seem to be anything marine rated about ujoints. so i think if i were you, i'd just go down to the parts store with your existing ujoint in hand and have them show me some aftermarket ones at the auto store (using the parts numbers listed in the ujoint thread). the one that comes close to yours would be the one i'd get... if i wanted to save the dime.... the folks that commented in that ujoint thread are hip to what's happening more than me. i've used their advise often..

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, This motor part of things is going on the back burner for a while, we are concentrating on the rot and water damage first, its gotta float before it can go anywhere right? If anyone wants to follow along heres the thread in the resto forum. Once again thank you for the info and this thread will come back to life hopefully in a few months.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=2262547#post2262547

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

Coupler doesn't look bad to me, if the splines were V shaped it would be bad, but they don't look V'ed to me.

 

[dr_bowtie]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

according to this site you have a "pre-alpha" drive unit...

http://www.mercstuff.com/drive_idprealpha.htm

I havent ever torn one down either and this thread does help me with what to look for when I do also...

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Took the drive off the Mercruiser.

So the consensus is that the coupler is fine? I took a closer look today and I didn't notice much "V" shape to the splines. If I could get a general consensus from you guys it would be awesome. I will still do the gimble bearing as it is a bearing and it most likely had water running in, through, around it. If you guys want I can get closer pics and maybe clean it up?