5 blade prop on my bayliner

[MalcolmV8]

Re: 5 blade prop on my bayliner

Ujoints looks very good, not rusty at all, so your inspection finding the bellows being good is correct. There are a bunch of seals in the drive that can leak water into the drive. Bolt it back together (make sure the quad ring seal is between the drive halves) and pressure test the drive. A pressure tester will cost about $20 to make. See the stickies at the top of the Mercruiser forum for tool and procedure.

For the muffs leaking, try bending the metal pinch clamp closed more, I did that to mine and it leaks and slips less.

I agree the ujoint assembly is all shiny metal and no signs of water contamination which is great.
I picked up the entire gasket set for the drive re-assembly today so I'll get everything replaced that needs to be.
I looked at some of the threads/how tos on the pressure tester and I believe I have all that laying in the garage for the most part. I'll see what I can put together. Thanks for the into and tip.

 

[MalcolmV8]

Re: 5 blade prop on my bayliner

A few pics from the welding shop this morning. As stated before he did a fantastic job. Heated up and straightened the piece and then prepped all the surfaces and welded it.

Bottom side. After a little scuffing and paint you won't even know it was there.

After getting all the seals replaced I put this together to pressure test the gear drive. It's a pressure regulator which also acts as a one way valve and then an actual valve to pressure the system.

I pressured the lower to around 8 ~ 10 PSI and it held perfectly.

I was unable to pressure test the top unit alone. I couldn't find my rubber plugs for closing large holes such as the one that allows the shaft from the lower drive to slide into the upper drive. So I had to go on a limb that the upper was sealing too and just test everything all put back together.

 

[MalcolmV8]

Re: 5 blade prop on my bayliner

So I drug the compressor out to the boat once it was all back together and did just that. Pressurized the entire unit to 10 PSI and let it sit a few minutes. Held like a champ. Very happy

It's mostly all back together. New impeller and seals etc. I found this gem at the marine shop today. Fantastic for the correct way to re-assemble and torque specs etc. I highly recommend.

Only issue I ran into late as it was getting dark was pumping in the gear oil. Specs say 2 quarts. I opened up the vent on the side and connected the pump to the top hole where the dip stick goes and it only took half a quart before it started coming out the vent hole. I'm guessing I need to pump it from the bottom into the drain plug opening? Guess I better go back and read some more of that manual

I'll get the engine bay vent motor hose installed tomorrow and a few other misc stuff wrapped up and then re-fire this thing and hopefully no more overheating issues. Then I can get the oil & filter changed and hopefully finally get this sucker out on the lake for a shake down.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Re: 5 blade prop on my bayliner

Glad you got it repaired and tested.

Manuals are great to have, but Seloc manuals don't seem to have a very good reputation around here. You can get electronic versions of the actual Mercruiser service manuals if you post your engine and outdrive serial numbers.

Congrats!

 

[ktbarrentine]

Re: 5 blade prop on my bayliner

A few pics from the welding shop this morning. As stated before he did a fantastic job. Heated up and straightened the piece and then prepped all the surfaces and welded it.

Bottom side. After a little scuffing and paint you won't even know it was there.

After getting all the seals replaced I put this together to pressure test the gear drive. It's a pressure regulator which also acts as a one way valve and then an actual valve to pressure the system.

I pressured the lower to around 8 ~ 10 PSI and it held perfectly.

I was unable to pressure test the top unit alone. I couldn't find my rubber plugs for closing large holes such as the one that allows the shaft from the lower drive to slide into the upper drive. So I had to go on a limb that the upper was sealing too and just test everything all put back together.

Pressure testing the GenII fully assembled tests the shaft seals on the vertical shaft where it goes into the upper. Yours passed....should be ok. I am not sure I like the design change going to Gen II that doesnt let you pressure test the upper by itself.:facepalm:

Pretty elaborate test setup.... I just use a manual tire pump. Takes only a few pumps.


And your SELOC manual makes a great knee pad (that manual has more wrong/mis-leading info in it than it has right info)! Get a "real" manual!! (on here, free!) (get your engine manual on here, too) Go to the mercruiser I/O forum and post a request for links to your manuals. Visit the two technical stickies at the top of that forum for a ton of good "other" info you really need (if you havent already done that)

NEVER attempt to add oil from the top..... ALWAYS pump oil in from the bottom until it comes out the upper vent. 'nuff said!!

Did you check your engine coupler/gimbal alignment before reinstalling the drive? (Highly recommended to do this simple check every time the drive is removed, and more so after any gimbal maintenance and if it is a new-to-you boat)

You said you had oil in your drive bellows, but you never said anything about inspecting/replacing the yoke shaft seal in the upper drive. It passed a pressure test at 10 PSI (should be ~15 PSI for ~15 minutes and I typically do a soapy-water spray test of that seal area specifically). Hope it doesn't leak anymore! You will know if your drive reservoir drops and/or you have to add more oil to the drive after a few hours of operation. Good luck! Hope it all goes well!

 

[MalcolmV8]

Re: 5 blade prop on my bayliner

Glad you got it repaired and tested.

Manuals are great to have, but Seloc manuals don't seem to have a very good reputation around here. You can get electronic versions of the actual Mercruiser service manuals if you post your engine and outdrive serial numbers.

Congrats!

Engine 0D510178
Transom 0D530341
Drive 0D526520

You dont need to plug the shaft opening (This appears to be a common mis-conception). There is an oil seal in there that should hold pressure (oil seal is just below the driven gear in the upper. There is a second seal just below that, which seals on the shaft to keep water out of the splines.). Did you at least try and pressure test the upper by itself? I do it all the time...just need to plug the oil passage.

I did try and air was blowing out the hole where the lower's shaft would slide in. I did not know this was not normal. It seemed to make sense that the shaft would plug the hole.

If the primary seal under the driven gear has a problem, then the lower seal on the shaft will seal the area, but that is not what it was designed for. You will know if you have a problem with the primary seal if next time you take the drive apart there is gear oil present at the vertical shaft splines when you split the drive. There is another guy on the forum that has recently had that issue.

Yup there was indeed oil on the splines when I pulled out the lower. Humm so that upper gear seal must have been toast. What will be involved in changing that? It'd make sense to try and do that now.

Pretty elaborate test setup.... I just use a manual tire pump. Takes only a few pumps.

I work on cars a lot and already had the parts laying around for doing compression and leak down tests etc. I just pieced the parts together for this.

And your SELOC manual makes a great knee pad (that manual has more wrong/mis-leading info in it than it has right info)! Get a "real" manual!! (on here, free!) (get your engine manual on here, too) Go to the mercruiser I/O forum and post a request for links to your manuals. Visit the two technical stickies at the top of that forum for a ton of good "other" info you really need (if you havent already done that)

They're that bad? that stinks. I'll go check out those links you mentioned.

NEVER attempt to add oil from the top..... ALWAYS pump oil in from the bottom until it comes out the upper vent. 'nuff said!!

I didin't hurt anything putting it in the top did I? I'll add the rest from the bottom.

Did you check your engine coupler/gimbal alignment before reinstalling the drive? (Highly recommended to do this simple check every time the drive is removed, and more so after any gimbal maintenance and if it is a new-to-you boat)

I did not. I never touched the gimbal so hopefully it's still good. I honestly didn't know to check or I would have. I did put the trim level and the steering and eye balled that the center bearing was lined up with the center of the splines in the motor. Beyond that I wasn't sure what to do. Remember I've never owned a boat, this is all new to me, figuring it out as I go.

You said you had oil in your drive bellows, but you never said anything about inspecting/replacing the yoke shaft seal in the upper drive. It passed a pressure test at 10 PSI (should be ~15 PSI for ~15 minutes and I typically do a soapy-water spray test of that seal area specifically). Hope it doesn't leak anymore! You will know if your drive reservoir drops and/or you have to add more oil to the drive after a few hours of operation. Good luck! Hope it all goes well!

The gasket/seal kit I got had a new yoke shaft seal. I replaced it. That large, about 4" diameter, rubber ring seal and the two orings on the shaft itself.
15 PSI for 15 minutes, good to know for future work. Thanks.

 

[ktbarrentine]

Re: 5 blade prop on my bayliner

The gasket/seal kit I got had a new yoke shaft seal. I replaced it. That large, about 4" diameter, rubber ring seal and the two orings on the shaft itself.
15 PSI for 15 minutes, good to know for future work. Thanks.

That is not the seal I was referring to. the yoke "shaft" seal is in the upper part of the OD behind the u-joints. It is pretty involved to replace that seal.... You said the drive passed it's pressure test, so maybe it is ok.... but since you said you had oil in the u-joint belows area, it is still suspect.

Your dual seals in the vertical shaft area are ok if they pass a pressure test with the drvie fully assembled. I have come to the realization that the GenII has to be fully assembled to test these seals, as they seal on the vertical shaft. Interesting change from the previous versions (non GenII) that sealed on the upper drive shaft as well as the lower shaft.

It didnt hurt anything to try and add oil in the top, as long as you followed up with adding it correctly from the bottom. The only way to ensure you get all the air out of the bottom during the fill is to pump it in from the bottom until it comes out the upper vent. People have not done that and have been very sorry. You'll find out (as you probably already have) that the OD does not hold a full two quarts.

 

[MalcolmV8]

Re: 5 blade prop on my bayliner

That is not the seal I was referring to. the yoke "shaft" seal is in the upper part of the OD behind the u-joints. It is pretty involved to replace that seal.... You said the drive passed it's pressure test, so maybe it is ok.... but since you said you had oil in the u-joint belows area, it is still suspect.

It is also fairly involved to replace the two seals where the lower drive shaft penetrates into the upper half of the OD. Again, you indicated the whole drive passed its pressure test, so maybe. again, it is ok.... but you saying there was gear oil in the shaft splines area, and it wouldnt hold pressure of a upper drive assembly pressure test, then to me it is still suspect. Hoping other GenII techs can chime in here.

Humm seeing what you say here. I may run the boat for a bit and keep an eye on the gear oil level. If the level never changes I may be good.

 

[MalcolmV8]

Re: 5 blade prop on my bayliner

Well got the boat out on the water finally on Sunday. Twice. Seems to run fine for the most part. Few things I noticed.
Steering wheel is straight and I'm going straight at slower speeds. When you've got some speed the boat has plain'd out and you're on top of the water it seems the steering wheel is cocked to the right a fair amount when traveling in a straight line. Is this normal? something to do with the prop?

Temp gauge has something weird going on. So at home on muffs it was idling around 170F. In the lake it'll do similar but as soon as you gas it and go within less than 3 seconds the temp drops to 100F which is as low as the gauge will go. It then never moves. You have to stop and idle in for a while or better yet turn off the engine and turn it back on a minute later and the temp gauge will be up some. Gas it and flops down almost immediately. My first thought was thermostat. So I went home and grabbed my IR temp gun. Put it back out on the lake and after cruising around a while I opened up the over and checked all over the engine and I was seeing 145 ~ 150F so I think the thermostat is fine and the engine temp is OK. It's almost like the temp sensor is not in the engine coolant but in the lake water part of the cooling system. I'll have to dig more into this and see what's going on.

Another issue I noticed is the engine dip stick keeps getting pushed up like there's to much crank case pressure. I pushed it back a few times but after some near WOT running I'd check it again and it was pushed up. Not sure if new PCV valves on each valve cover would fix this or not.

Manual says WOT is between 4400 and 4800 RPMs. I noticed it'll happily run to 5k RPMs at WOT so I just closed the throttle some and kept it around 4500 RPMs. So I guess this prop is not matched as well to the boat as it could be. Not sure how fast bayliners normally go as I've never been in one before but it seemed plenty fast on the top end. I forgot to check the GPS on my phone for actual speed. Boats speedometer is still not working, thought I had it repaired but must have missed something, will go back on that.
Acceleration was less than impressive to me. Maybe I'm expecting to much. I'll need another boater more experienced to take a ride with me what they think. Maybe the engine's not pulling as hard as it should on acceleration or maybe that's just how this boat goes.

Fuel level gauge is not working. After pulling apart a few things I found it was the sending unit in the tank. There's a tiny spring wire that's part of the electrical circuit that attaches to the metal float arm that moves up and down and it's snapped off from years of use. Will need a new sending unit.

Other than those few things seems to be a pretty sound boat. Ran good and kids loved it. Should be a fun summer. Thanks for all the help so far guys, I'm sure there's more to come