Rick Stephens
Admiral
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2013
- Messages
- 6,118
'90 3.0 Alpha 1 Gen 1. Bought boat mid summer, took it fishing a bunch. Everything worked fine, ran like a clock. I am now going through everything to both winterize and find out what is marginal. My first time inside this outdrive. Been reading this site for a while, and have all the manuals.
Drained the outdrive, oil was minimally tainted with a teensy bit color. Previous owner stated his mechanic had replaced a seal in the spring since he saw a little water in the gear oil. He did not remember or know which seal. The minimal amount now could be because of leftover past contamination or new contamination, no way to know. Time for pressure testing.
Pulled the leg - lots of light brown goo - 1/2 inch - water mixed with oil or grease in the bellows. Smells more like grease than gear oil, but frankly, could be either or both. Gimbal bearing has some rough spots (yeah, big surprise, right). There's enough rust in the nooks and crannies of the CV joint that I suspect this has been going on for a while.
Bell housing gasket was glued onto bell housing side. But looked ok, not pushed out anywhere or missing any parts.
Bellows is soft and looks great.
I have 6 hours with the leg pressurized to 12 pounds and still holding. I even did this in a water trough to be certain. So far, no bubbles and no leak down at all. Been rotating the input shaft and gear shift occasionally.
From what I have read the input shaft seal isn't all that good at keeping water out of the gear case. So that may have been the source of the contaminants in the lube.
If I pass overnight pressure test, then I plan on splitting the cases and replacing the impeller. Other than that, I am planning to try and use it next spring without going much deeper.
Questions come in on what to do to the bell housing/bellows. With this a new to me boat, I'd like to do this right.
1) Just go ahead and replace the bellows? (is this best an OEM part?)
2) shift bellows and exhaust at same time?
3) since already in there, intake water line?
4) ujoints seem fine - but they were definitely in the goo. To get those you have to pull the ujoint bearing retainer? Does the rolling torque need re-torquing as well or jest leave it be? It is probably going to be lower than spec after how ever many years of use. If I have to redo the torquing then I'll probably replace that top seal while I am there.
5) there is definitely a little bit of pitting on the drive shaft where the grease seal in front of the gimbal bearing rides. Not much, but a little. Is this cause to replace that front shaft? Hard to tell where the seal rides, the long term pitting may not be the same place. A little emory clothe to smooth it? Decent seal here might keep the boat dryish if a bellows goes south :^) That shaft is spendy. Love to keep it if possible. I'll post pictures if that will help.
My list is getting longish on things might need doing. Is mostly relief that the outdrive appears to be in a lot better shape than it might have been. The possibilities seemed endless when I did a fairly perfunctory once over before buying it - I paid for it while motoring around in it, so at a minimum I knew it functioned perfectly and sounded good. Now's the time to figure out what all needs doing to keep it that way.
Also, trying to figure out what all should be OEM parts. My reading has shown a tendency towards OEM seals and some gaskets, most of the 'sets' available online are probably after market. What is important to make certain of OEM?
Thanks for your assistance and thoughts.
Rick
Drained the outdrive, oil was minimally tainted with a teensy bit color. Previous owner stated his mechanic had replaced a seal in the spring since he saw a little water in the gear oil. He did not remember or know which seal. The minimal amount now could be because of leftover past contamination or new contamination, no way to know. Time for pressure testing.
Pulled the leg - lots of light brown goo - 1/2 inch - water mixed with oil or grease in the bellows. Smells more like grease than gear oil, but frankly, could be either or both. Gimbal bearing has some rough spots (yeah, big surprise, right). There's enough rust in the nooks and crannies of the CV joint that I suspect this has been going on for a while.
Bell housing gasket was glued onto bell housing side. But looked ok, not pushed out anywhere or missing any parts.
Bellows is soft and looks great.
I have 6 hours with the leg pressurized to 12 pounds and still holding. I even did this in a water trough to be certain. So far, no bubbles and no leak down at all. Been rotating the input shaft and gear shift occasionally.
From what I have read the input shaft seal isn't all that good at keeping water out of the gear case. So that may have been the source of the contaminants in the lube.
If I pass overnight pressure test, then I plan on splitting the cases and replacing the impeller. Other than that, I am planning to try and use it next spring without going much deeper.
Questions come in on what to do to the bell housing/bellows. With this a new to me boat, I'd like to do this right.
1) Just go ahead and replace the bellows? (is this best an OEM part?)
2) shift bellows and exhaust at same time?
3) since already in there, intake water line?
4) ujoints seem fine - but they were definitely in the goo. To get those you have to pull the ujoint bearing retainer? Does the rolling torque need re-torquing as well or jest leave it be? It is probably going to be lower than spec after how ever many years of use. If I have to redo the torquing then I'll probably replace that top seal while I am there.
5) there is definitely a little bit of pitting on the drive shaft where the grease seal in front of the gimbal bearing rides. Not much, but a little. Is this cause to replace that front shaft? Hard to tell where the seal rides, the long term pitting may not be the same place. A little emory clothe to smooth it? Decent seal here might keep the boat dryish if a bellows goes south :^) That shaft is spendy. Love to keep it if possible. I'll post pictures if that will help.
My list is getting longish on things might need doing. Is mostly relief that the outdrive appears to be in a lot better shape than it might have been. The possibilities seemed endless when I did a fairly perfunctory once over before buying it - I paid for it while motoring around in it, so at a minimum I knew it functioned perfectly and sounded good. Now's the time to figure out what all needs doing to keep it that way.
Also, trying to figure out what all should be OEM parts. My reading has shown a tendency towards OEM seals and some gaskets, most of the 'sets' available online are probably after market. What is important to make certain of OEM?
Thanks for your assistance and thoughts.
Rick
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