Alpha 1 Gen 2 "Slipping" out of the hole. :(

[pmtom1]

1997 Sea Ray 18' 3.0 Bought her a month ago and have had 25-30 hours of perfect running fun with no issues at all.

Two days ago I noticed my gear lube monitor is almost empty (no buzzer wire was broke) and I KNOW it was full up to the line a couple weeks ago. I know I know... I haven't checked each time out. Lesson learned! So I pull it out of my slip (fresh water in the CT river) and bring it home to check everything out. When I got out there this morning, I notice the skeg broke completely off. Have NO IDEA when that happened. Don't recall hitting anything in the water. Think it must have been trailering.

Anyways... I drain the oil and there no water at all. Let it drain for a couple hours then fill it up with Mercury High Performance gear lube plus (warmed the bottles up in warm water) till it came out of the top hole. Gave a few extra pumps for good luck them closed up the top and bottom hole.

Went into the engine and filled the monitor back up to the line then let everything sit for a couple hours before I got ready to head out.

Noticed right away the monitor dripping from underneath were the hose goes in so that (and no water in the drained oil) hopefully explains my level being low and its not a seal. Right?

So out I get it in the water and it ran fine at low speed no wake but when I went to hit it, it felt like something was slipping and it couldn't get out to plane. I tried a couple more times with same result then pulled it out and back home.

Is it possible I pumped the oil in too fast and got air in there? Could it have something to do with the broken skeg? No weeds btw.

What should I check next?

thanks all.... I'm super bummed. Finally have a stretch of nice weather out here and I'm grounded!

 

[greno]

Been there done that. Was almost 25 years ago but we managed to knock the skeg off while trailering long distance. Stopped to eat and went around the boat and the trailer bar holding the outdrive up was no where to be found and the outdrive was down and no skeg to be found either. Anyway, it sounds like you found where the oil was going. And did you take a good look at your prop? If you sawed off the skeg you may have seriously damaged the prop blades as well.

 

[pmtom1]

Checked very thoroughly all angles. Even while manually spinning. No marks on prop and curves all look the same.

 

[greno]

Ok you got lucky with the prop. Did you smell anything like rubber burning the last time out?

 

[pmtom1]

Nope. Last time out was about 1.5 hour run up the river. About 45 minutes at 4200 on and off with no wake zones and at least 30 minutes of pulling a kid on a tube. Left her in slip then went back the next day to check some steering tightness and noticed the monitor.

 

[greno]

I'm talking about when you couldn't get it on plane and it felt like it was spinning.

 

[pmtom1]

hmmm... my wife actually said she smelled something. I assumed it was the spilled gear lube oil from me messing with the tank. I thought I smelled it too but you know how that gear oil sticks to you! Honestly not sure.

 

[Alumarine]

Is it possible I pumped the oil in too fast and got air in there?

Not if you pumped it from the bottom. And a lack of oil wouldn't cause your problem, at least right away anyway.

Could it have something to do with the broken skeg?

The skeg is their mainly to protect the prop. Won't impact getting on plane.

 

[greno]

Yeah, that's not good. Might mean your coupler is spun. And to fix that you need to pull the engine.
Do you know anyone real knowledgeable about sterndrives? Have them diagnose it for you. Otherwise take it to a marine mechanic and have him do it.

 

[achris]

1997 Sea Ray 18' 3.0 Bought her a month ago and have had 25-30 hours of perfect running fun with no issues at all.

Two days ago I noticed my gear lube monitor is almost empty (no buzzer wire was broke) and I KNOW it was full up to the line a couple weeks ago. I know I know... I haven't checked each time out. Lesson learned!

You may not have 'lost' the oil at all... When you fill those drives with them on the boat, there is an air cavity between the vent screw and the top of the drive. With use, that air can make it's way through the monitor bottle hose and into the bottle, being replaced by the oil from the bottle, thus, it appears you have lost oil, when in fact all that's happened is the oil has gone into the drive...

So I pull it out of my slip (fresh water in the CT river) and bring it home to check everything out. When I got out there this morning, I notice the skeg broke completely off. Have NO IDEA when that happened. Don't recall hitting anything in the water. Think it must have been trailering.

You can buy a new skeg and have it welded on... Merc part number -90185A1

Anyways... I drain the oil and there no water at all. Let it drain for a couple hours then fill it up with Mercury High Performance gear lube plus (warmed the bottles up in warm water) till it came out of the top hole. Gave a few extra pumps for good luck them closed up the top and bottom hole.

Went into the engine and filled the monitor back up to the line then let everything sit for a couple hours before I got ready to head out.

Noticed right away the monitor dripping from underneath were the hose goes in so that (and no water in the drained oil) hopefully explains my level being low and its not a seal. Right?

Some...

So out I get it in the water and it ran fine at low speed no wake but when I went to hit it, it felt like something was slipping and it couldn't get out to plane. I tried a couple more times with same result then pulled it out and back home.

Is it possible I pumped the oil in too fast and got air in there? Could it have something to do with the broken skeg? No weeds btw.

As already said, can't pump the oil in too fast...

What should I check next?

thanks all.... I'm super bummed. Finally have a stretch of nice weather out here and I'm grounded!

Get a marker pen and mark the relationship between the prop and the prop shaft... Take the boat out and get it to 'slip'. Examine your reference marks. If they're in the same place, likely an engine coupler. If the marks have moved, it the prop hub. Remove the prop and take it to a prop shop....

Chris.........

 

[pmtom1]

OK cool... marker test it is. Finger crossed! Just out of curiosity….and to help me sleep tonight... does the burning rubber smell usually indicate engine couple or prop?

 

[greno]

Burning rubber is coupler. You won't smell anything when the prop hub gets spun.

 

[achris]

Burning rubber is coupler. You won't smell anything when the prop hub gets spun.

You have obviously never smelt a burnt prop hub....

 

[greno]

Unless you have a following wind you're not going to smell a spun prop. I've spun 3 of them over the years and didn't smell any of them. That's how I knew it was the prop and not the coupler.

 

[pmtom1]

OK so not sure if this tells us anything but.... Today I borrowed a prop from similar boat. (Same engine, Alpha, not gen 2, same size, few year older) and popped it on. Popped right out, no slip at all. Stopped right away and did this 3 or 4 more times then did a 3-5 minute run. Stopped, turned around and did three more starts with no problem. Pulled into to slip parked boat for 10 minutes to load some stuff then went to take off and no Bueno! Same thing as yesterday.

Yesterday it slipped the very first time I pulled out. Today it worked perfect at first.

Any ideas?

 

[greno]

Yep, you got the coupler heated up and it started to slip again. This is what happens when the coupler is just starting to fail. It will cool down and the hot rubber will reset then you take it out again and it starts to heat up and at some point it will start slipping.

 

[pmtom1]

Thanks everyone!

I did notice my front engine mount is pretty crappy...that could cause this by changing the alignment correct?

Just to be sure, if it was my drive gears, it wouldn't act this way right? Or it would make some kind of noise? Don't want to pull engine for nothing.

While doing all this, anything else I should do (beside bellows, oil change, gear change and engine mounts)

Any other hints / tricks on this job? Seems pretty simple with some patience and organization.

 

[greno]

Drive gears don't give off rubber smell. And they're usually all or nothing.
A bad engine mount most definitely will lead to engine misalignment which puts a lot of stress on the coupler.
Unless you have all the special tools you probably won't be able to change gear set.
If you're going to rebuild your engine mounts take very careful measurements of their location and height and duplicate those exactly.
When you get the engine out carefully check your transom. Especially around those bottom aluminum bolts. These are a prime source of transom rot.
Once you know you have a good transom and good engine mounts and a new coupler then go ahead and do the normal maintenance of bellows, oil changes, impeller, etc.

 

[pmtom1]

By "change gear set" you are referring to drive, right?

Also, is there a way to check the engine mount? Or is it just something I should while there for the $30?

 

[greno]

Change gear sets means changing gear ratios. I don't think you want/need to do that.
Checking the engine mounts means checking the wood/fiberglass stringer or engine mount in the boat. If that has gotten rotted then the steel engine mounts have nothing solid to attach to. A while back I had to replace both wood mounts in one of my boats because they had started to rot. The way I caught it was I was running the engine one day with the cover off to find another problem and when I gunned it out of the hole the one side of the engine actually picked up a little off the mount because the hold down screws were into rotted wood.