Alpha 1 gen 2 water and oil in gimbal bearing area i need help asap!!!

[jws123]

i have a 1998 wellcraft 240 se with alpha 1 gen 2 5.7 engine Past few runs i have noticed some noise at 1500 rpms and dirive oil was a little low..... today took it out was noisy/vibration on way back to slip i lost all drive oil in reservoir so went and got trailer pulled it out got it home pulled the drive plug not to much water came out of it think i caught it in time. HOWEVER i go to pull the drive off of the boat and inside the gimbal housing area and its soaked with oil/water ... ujoints soaked with oil ect?? what goes bad that can do this? the bellows are in good shape only 2 yrs old and it should have nothing to do with oil/water mixing tho? need to get this back in the water as soon as i can hoping its simple.

 

[Grub54891]

The front seal on the drive is leaking. You need to get the drive checked out and resealed. Hopefully the upper gears didn't get damaged from lack of oil. Anytime that reservoir keeps getting low, you have a leak.
Re-read your post, you pulled the lower drain plug and water came out?

 

[jws123]

The front seal on the drive is leaking. You need to get the drive checked out and resealed. Hopefully the upper gears didn't get damaged from lack of oil. Anytime that reservoir keeps getting low, you have a leak.
Re-read your post, you pulled the lower drain plug and water came out?

By front seal what one do you mean?

sorry was typing it on m phone Water was mixed with oil not pure water wasn't to bad going to pressure test the drive but i had Oil/Water inside of the gimbal bearing boot/area and the universals where soaked in oil/water what seal is there that could be leaking water/oil?

 

[Rick Stephens]

Take a swipe with your finger at the water oil mix in the bellows and smell it. 90 weight oil has a very distinct odor. If there is no odor, then the water is mixed with u-joint grease and not drive oil and your drive oil leak is somewhere else.


As you noted you have multiple leaks if both oil and water are present in the bellow. There shouldn't be a way for water and oil to leak into u-joint bellows from one place. not unless there is a housing crack.

List the things that let oil into the u-joint bellow:

1) only one, seal on the back side of the u-joint yoke.


Things that let water into the u-joint bellows:

1) Leaky bellows
2) leaky drive bellhousing gasket
3) missing or bad water passage o-ring
4) worn out shift shaft seal
5) crack in the housing


Those are what you need to check out.
Rick

 

[jws123]

You have multiple leaks. You are correct, there shouldn't be a way for water and oil to leak into u-joint bellows from one place. not unless there is a housing crack.

List the things that let oil into the u-joint bellow:

1) only one, seal on the back side of the u-joint yoke.


Things that let water into the u-joint bellows:

1) Leaky bellows
2) leaky drive bellhousing gasket
3) missing or bad water passage o-ring
4) worn out shift shaft seal
5) crack in the housing


Those are what you need to check out. Also, take a swipe with your finger at the water oil mix in the bellows and smell it. 90 weight oil has a very distinct odor. If there is no odor, then the water is mixed with u-joint grease and not drive oil and your drive oil leak is somewhere else.

Rick

It is def drive oil ik the smell it stinks ty for the info will check it over tomorrow.

 

[NHGuy]

If there was water in the drive oil you need to have that corrected. It sounds as if the upper front seal may have leaked, it's inside the bellows.
And since the drive oil got low perhaps the seal in front of the propeller became compromised and allowed outside water to get in the drive.
You wrote that water was mixed with the drive oil, hopefully not enough to damage your gears.

 

[jws123]

If there was water in the drive oil you need to have that corrected. It sounds as if the upper front seal may have leaked, it's inside the bellows.
And since the drive oil got low perhaps the seal in front of the propeller became compromised and allowed outside water to get in the drive.
You wrote that water was mixed with the drive oil, hopefully not enough to damage your gears.

I think i caught it in time before real damage was done crossing fingers.. still feels fine when i turn it by hand most of the noise was the gimbal bearing i think cause thats 100% shot now. I am going to look it over again tomorrow cause whatever it is its not just a slow leak it ****ing dumped out i checked the level before i took it out came back the reservoir was bone dry and set my alarm off hence how i noticed it ran out.

 

[achris]

This is the 'front seal' everybody refers to....



If that's leaking, it usually means the surface on the yoke is damaged. New yoke, or a speedi-sleeve.

Water/oil mixture in the bellows. Bellows are likely leaking. You said the bellows were replaced a couple of years ago. Genuine? If not, that's why you have a leak now.

Now, the water in the drive oil could have come in through that leaking front seal, but you'll need to pressure test the drive to be sure. It's not unheard of to have more than one seal leaking. But at 20 years old, if it hasn't been resealed, it's probably time....

As for 'I caught it in time', you won't know until it's apart. I had problems with my own drive and found the problem before it got too expensive, but I didn't heard anything from that before I took it apart... Unless you're doing the work yourself, and have all the parts and tools immediately at hand, it's going to take time. Don't plan on being out on the water 'soon'...

Also, could you please start using punctuation in your posts, they're currently REALLY hard to read... Yes I know I'm just a dumb Aussie, but for me, please?

Thanks......

 

[jws123]

This is the 'front seal' everybody refers to....



If that's leaking, it usually means the surface on the yoke is damaged. New yoke, or a speedi-sleeve.

Water/oil mixture in the bellows. Bellows are likely leaking. You said the bellows were replaced a couple of years ago. Genuine? If not, that's why you have a leak now.

Now, the water in the drive oil could have come in through that leaking front seal, but you'll need to pressure test the drive to be sure. It's not unheard of to have more than one seal leaking. But at 20 years old, if it hasn't been resealed, it's probably time....

As for 'I caught it in time', you won't know until it's apart. I had problems with my own drive and found the problem before it got too expensive, but I didn't heard anything from that before I took it apart... Unless you're doing the work yourself, and have all the parts and tools immediately at hand, it's going to take time. Don't plan on being out on the water 'soon'...

Also, could you please start using punctuation in your posts, they're currently REALLY hard to read... Yes I know I'm just a dumb Aussie, but for me, please?

Thanks......

Lol i know my punctuation is bad i am lazy sometimes when i am typing mostly using my phone just pressure tested drive blows right out the upper back seal like yall said guess i am going to have to tear it down and hope damage in not to bad if i can get 3 more weekends out of it il be happy then il just get a rebuilt drive next year.

 

[jws123]

And of course i cant get the Rear housing retainer off been soaking it up heated it a lil aswell wont budge anyone have suggestions for getting it out? i ordered a new one cause I already broke 4 teeth off it.

 

[Grub54891]

Bad link.

 

[nola mike]

And of course i cant get the Rear housing retainer off been soaking it up heated it a lil aswell wont budge anyone have suggestions for getting it out? i ordered a new one cause I already broke 4 teeth off it.

I assume you're not using the correct spanner tool. Stop trying to pound it off with a hammer. Not sure how many teeth you can break before you have a real problem, but I'd bet that it's not a fun time once you reach that point...

 

[jws123]

I assume you're not using the correct spanner tool. Stop trying to pound it off with a hammer. Not sure how many teeth you can break before you have a real problem, but I'd bet that it's not a fun time once you reach that point...

After the first 2 i bought the tool lol its 100% stuck i keep soaking it down with pb blaster the other 2 teeth fell off when using the tool i can tell someone before me either had it off or tried to get it off as there where marks on it.Also i found the water leak it was the shift bushing/seal. So i guess with salt water soaking the back of the ring that didnt help it looks like its going to be a *****.

 

[jws123]

managed to get it off had to use a VERY MILD amount of heat and it came right off inside of drive/gears look good. Replacing seals now then hopefully back in business.