Turns out that compression seal is not available anywhere but eBay. Dealers can't find it, and the one online site that is not OOS, boats.net, says 200+ days to fulfill. For what's essentially an o-ring. Managed to get a couple from eBay, hope they come through. I'm gathering info to order...
Looks most likely to have been the compression seal on the lowest of the 3 air injectors behind the air rail. It looks slightly deformed, and has a bit of white scale or something on it. Could have been from the lower nipple on the air rail end as well, but that seems less likely. Will...
After 20 years of flawless service, the engine wouldn't start today, and there is gas flowing off the bottom of the air rail box when it cranks. I don't see leaks at any hose connections there, but it's dropping off the bottom from somewhere. Bright sun made it hard to get a clear view of it...
A belated thanks, Paul.
I never followed up on this, but in case this helps someone else, these TLDI motors apparently have a rev-limiter to protect the motor under certain error conditions. There are even 3 limit levels: 6000, 3000, and idle, depending on how over-temp it gets (or other types...
Have been using LED lights on my small boat trailer for a few years now and like how bright and low maintenance they are. Recently the left light went dim, from an underside impact it appears, that knocked out the license plate illumination window and knocked the potted LED puck out of place...
Yesterday I was running back to the harbor at high speed with my tiller-operated 2003 NSD40B and 16' inflatable when the alarm sounded and I looked back to see the center light on (may have been flashing) and copious white smoke or probably steam streaming out of the cowling intake at the back...
The front section of the flooring of my 16' Achilles inflatable rotted out finally. The boat is 36 years old. In looking at the construction of the original piece, it appears to have been 10mm (0.40") 4 or 5 ply plywood, trapezoidal shape (~3' on the long edge by 2' tall), encased in...
The raw water cooling flow on my rebuilt Merc 165 was set up a bit differently than the Merc manuals show. Merc has the raw water flowing from the thermostat housing into the forward end of the manifold, back through the manifold, and out through the riser.
The rebuilder set this one up so the...
Boatyard broke off one rudder - and said nothing - so we want to put in a new transom hung rudder assembly, the whole assembly with mounting plate. This will be a replacement part from the OEM (Marine Hardware). The boat will be hauled, but is this reasonably considered DIY? What sorts of...
Helping a buddy with his '89 Bayliner 3288. It has Mercruiser 305 engines with Sen-Dure cooling reservoirs. I see a zinc on the exchanger but my dim recollection is that there should be others elsewhere on the system. The motors are packed in tight and the hatches are over the shaft logs. I...
Earlier this summer I had the boat out and suffered what seemed at the time to be fuel starvation. Changed the fuel filter and managed to get the boat back to the harbor by manipulating the carb linkage to keep the motor from stalling when shifting into gear. Along the way there was another...
I'm swapping an Alpha One Gen I for the chronically water-logged 165 outdrive on my boat. I've got the input shaft swapped and the new water pump installed in the lower. The last thing to do besides mounting upper and lower to the boat is to replace the bottom seal in the upper unit, the one...
Back again for more advice. Bought a used Alpha One Gen I upper/lower in hopes of getting back on the water quickly, It had oil in it so all I did was an external inspection - shafts turned easily, quietly, and smoothly, and it appeared to have been a fresh water unit - a vacuum test, and a...
Can water in the lower unit cause the oil to emulsify so badly that it gums up the works?
After a few trouble-free trips, a new issue arose yesterday with the old '74 Sportcraft with Merc 165 and L6 250. The boat now can't get much past just on plane, 12-13 kts. At higher throttle settings, the...
