Alpa upper

[Rjexhaust]

So at the beginning of the season had all new bellows and gimball bearing amd shift cables installed at a local shop after running the boat for a max of 5 hours because we park it in the swim area and ski off are smaller boat it just quit moving and free revs take it back to the shop and they say a seal in the upper went bad and striped all the gears out. They say there was no sign of this before should i belive that and was wondering if those seals are something that would usually get replace when doing a service to that extent and of they should be liabel for the 1500 they want to fix it

 

[Rick Stephens]

Doing a bellows and gimbal bearing doesn't have anything to do with servicing seals in the drive. That is an entirely different scope of work.

I would think that whoever did the annual service on the drive itself, changed the oil and what not, would have noticed if it was full of water or leaking oil. So that's a mixed bag question if they also serviced the drive when they did the bellows and gimbal bearing.

 

[wahlejim]

Agree with Rick, the only time a drive gets touched when doing a bellows and shift cable (if that is all they did work on) is when it gets removed and re-installed. 6 nuts and a gasket. No way for them to know the condition unless the ujoints were in bad shape.

Who winterized the drive? What did they do to winterize it?

 

[Rjexhaust]

Me and my dad did there was no water in any of the fluids or metal of any kind. The guyat the shop say the seal that went leaked the oil into one of the bellows this is what makes me wonder if the should have seen it before or maybe damaged during there repair work.

 

[flipbro]

If when they installed the new ujoint bellows it had gear lube in it they should have let you know at that time there was a possible problem.

 

[Rjexhaust]

I just went and picked it up snd that is were the oil is i belive they knew and just want paid for more repair but no way to prove it so not much i can do but suck it up. Any suggests on good replacement outdrive i hear mixed reviews one the sei so thinking i prolly dnt want to go that route.

 

[flipbro]

Nothing wrong with SEI imo. 3 Year warenty.

 

[Rick Stephens]

I would not be blaming your mechanic. If you didn't see oil in the bellows when you did the annual, and they didn't see it when they did the bellows, there is some symmetry there. Seems you are both in agreement.

I have run SEI drives, they aren't bad. They are the same drive made by an after market manufacturer. The parts in an SEI will drop right into a Merc outdrive and run fine. And they really do have a 3 year no fault warranty. Even if you run over a rock and thrash it, they'll fix it.

 

[FreeBeeTony]

I just replaced my drive w/ a rebuilt from a local guy on Long Island
​I went with him due to price ($850) and the fact that he is local and I met him.
Hope to launch tomorrow!