Checking for water intrusion

[TomB985]

Hi everyone.

Saturday I went out on the lake with a bunch of friends. The boat was loaded heavier than it ever has with 6 adults and my 5-year-old son, she was sluggish for sure. While pulling someone on a tube I ended up over a shoal that I didn't know existed. I backed off the throttle, and like a complete idiot goosed the throttle trying to get back on plane to get the outdrive further out of the water. Stoopid move to say the least, the stern dug right in and the drive slammed into the rocks pretty hard a few times. We stopped, inspected the damage, and seeing a mangled prop headed back to the ramp. Hauled it out, replaced the prop, and not seeing any other obvious damage we went back into the water and continued on with our day.



Thirty minutes later the low gear oil alarm went off. The oil level wasn't particularly high to start with because I didn't fill the reservoir all the way up last fall. But this is the first time I've ever had this happen. Added an 8-oz tube of gear oil I keep on the boat for emergencies and continued on with our day, monitoring it every so often.

Today I drained some oil from the drive and it had what looks like water droplets in the oil.



I'm not absolutely certain the small amount of water wasn't on the bottom of the outdrive when I drained the oil or not. What do you guys think? Should I pull the drive and take it in? Would I hurt anything running it again next weekend to see if I lose more oil? There are no leaks with the boat parked.

 

[tpenfield]

Pressure testing would be the thing to do to see if you have compromised the outdrive. Lake Winnipesaukee ?

 

[ethan169]

Here is my opinion..

If water is getting in the drive there is obviously a seal issue. There is a seal on the prop shaft for the lower unit and there is a seal on the vertical drive shaft coming up from the top of the lower unit (the shaft that drives your raw water pump). There is also an o-ring seal between the upper and lower unit mating area. Off the top of my head those are the only underwater locations where water would get in (unless the housings are cracked somewhere). I would be willing to bet that the seal on your prop drive shaft is potentially failing. This could be just because its old and needs replacing or maybe the prop shaft was bent during the impact.

It doesn't look like you have too much water in there. If it was me I would probably drain the drive oil completely and put fresh oil in there. Make sure you have your reservoir filled properly as well. Go boating and keep a close eye on everything. When your done drain a little of the oil and check for water.

Let us know how it goes and good luck!

 

[TomB985]

Pressure testing would be the thing to do to see if you have compromised the outdrive. Lake Winnipesaukee ?

Nope, had it up there last year. I live in northern Connecticut, this was at the lake in Webster, MA. Being in the military I can register my boat at my state of legal residence, which is New Hampshire.

If water is getting in the drive there is obviously a seal issue. There is a seal on the prop shaft for the lower unit and there is a seal on the vertical drive shaft coming up from the top of the lower unit (the shaft that drives your raw water pump). There is also an o-ring seal between the upper and lower unit mating area. Off the top of my head those are the only underwater locations where water would get in (unless the housings are cracked somewhere). I would be willing to bet that the seal on your prop drive shaft is potentially failing. This could be just because its old and needs replacing or maybe the prop shaft was bent during the impact.

It doesn't look like you have too much water in there. If it was me I would probably drain the drive oil completely and put fresh oil in there. Make sure you have your reservoir filled properly as well. Go boating and keep a close eye on everything. When your done drain a little of the oil and check for water.

Let us know how it goes and good luck!

Hi Ethan,

First thing I did when I hauled the boat out was to check the prop shaft to make sure I didn't bend it. Spinning it by hand it looks straight as an arrow. The boat is a 2011 and turned 3 years old just a couple of weeks ago. I have a hard time believing that a seal would go bad after three years, or that this would happen within an hour of the hardest underwater hit this boat has ever seen. Just my thoughts though, I've been wrong before and I'm sure I'll be wrong again.

I'm thinking I may be best off taking it to the lake next weekend and seeing what happens to the oil level.