1987 Mercuiser 3.0 Alpha excess water in bilge

[jdejongh]

Hello,
I recently purchased a 1987 four winns powered by a 3.o litre mercruiser w/alpha drive. I notice that if I leave the boat in the water after 1 week of non use that i will take on a few inches of water in the bilge. Rain not the issue... Im wondering if i should change out all the outdrive seals and bellows? I also notice that after running hte boat for a few hours I will also end up with a few inces of bilge water.... The water is pretty nasty also. What would be a good test to see if i need to do that? I cant see where the water is trickling in. If the answer is to change out with new transom seal kit... IS that terrribly complicated for a guy with average mechaanical ability .. Any input would be helpful. as a side note the plug i use is brass with no tephlon tape and doessnt seem to "tighten down" all the way. but i have read posts that say no tephlon needed

thank you

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: 1987 Mercuiser 3.0 Alpha excess water in bilge

I recently purchased a 1987 four winns powered by a 3.o litre mercruiser w/alpha drive. I notice that if I leave the boat in the water after 1 week of non use that i will take on a few inches of water in the bilge. Rain not the issue...

Howdy,

If you just got the boat, do you have any repair records? When was the drive removed and/or yearly service performed?

If there's no way to tell, then the boat needs to be put on the trailer and out-drive removed for inspection.

I think you may find that you could have a drive bellows leak. On the other hand, with a boat that old, you may also have transom rot and the water is coming in via the rotten transom.

In either case, if no maintenance has been performed, you NEED to pull the drive and have a look.

Up above in the top of this forum is a couple of "sticky" messages that will have links to manuals etc if you want to do it yourself......Otherwise you'll need to take it somewhere and have someone do it.

I don't want to scare you but, if the transom is rotten, the (shop) repair cost could be more than you paid for the boat!

If the drive bellows is leaking (and/or has been leaking ) and is/or was allowed to cause damage, the repair cost for that could also be more than the boat is worth!


Regards,


Rick

 

[jdejongh]

Re: 1987 Mercuiser 3.0 Alpha excess water in bilge

sounds like fun. thanks for the advice. Pulling drive this weekend