Mercruiser outdrive blew up with 6 hours on a reseal - what do do

[vetting]

Mercruiser Alpha One - Gen One (1.47 ratio hooked to a 5.7L)
Had a bad yoke seal and was allowing gear oil into the bellows.
Had all of the seals in the entire unit replaced and the yoke replaced.
All work was done by a shop in spring for $1200.
With less than 6 hours on the reseal, the drive completely grenaded itself.

Cruising at 2,800 RPMs, suddenly lost fwd and RPMs shot up. No clunking or grinding noises. Immediately shut off the engine.
Upon further inspection of the drive, it was still shifting just fine. However, you could spin the yoke freely with the prop moving at all.
Gear oil had plenty of small chunks in it and was completely silver.
I ended up buying a new merc lower unit and installing it the next day because we were in the middle of a week long fishing tournament.

So the question is, could something that they reassembled incorrectly have caused the failure? What approach should I take with the shop?

 

[Searay205]

Documentation is KEY. Obviously they could easily assemble incorrectly. I feel if it is the shop fault the refund repair charge and 50% of new outdrive. If they refuse file small claims for full value of new outdrive. In texas 1 page form takes about 4 minutes to file. Court sets date but highly unlikely you will ever present. They will settle....

 

[Bt Doctur]

If the gear teeth were melted flat, it was run low on oil

 

[Bt Doctur]

 

[Rick Stephens]

I would suggest that it is not necessarily a slam dunk to blame the mechanic. A full reseal does not fully disassemble all of the drive. The upper gear case gets pulled apart, but the lower does not. If the drive was previously run low on oil and there was even minor scoring or pitting on a gear, bearing or race, it would eventually lead to a failure. And it really depends on which bearing or race or gear to whether you should expect that even a diligent mechanic doing a reseal would see it. In the upper case, if he did a good job and was careful he should have been able to see any unacceptable wear or galling. And yeah, the upper is the most likely place for a failure like this to start. Sometimes it can be very subtle what constitutes a worn part that needs replacing. Worse yet, if it is a minor appearing problem, a bit of shine here, a scratch mark ringing a race there, the cure is almost always multiple parts replacement and a very hefty bill. This takes experience and judgement. A lot of it. As well as marketing skills to make sure the customer understands and agrees.

 

[Searay205]

He said seals in the entire unit. I assumed upper and lower. Was it only upper? Wow $1200 for just upper reseal. Seams high but quality cost $$ oh wait they may not have happened or maybe it did.

 

[Rick Stephens]

He said seals in the entire unit. I assumed upper and lower. Was it only upper? Wow $1200 for just upper reseal. Seams high but quality cost $$ oh wait they may not have happened or maybe it did.

Not what I said, or he said. I said you don't have to disassemble the lower to change seals.

 

[vetting]

Was upper and lower seals and a new yoke. Along with water tube crossover assembly, spanner nut, water pump kit, and gear lube.

 

[JustJason]

Documentation is KEY. Obviously they could easily assemble incorrectly. I feel if it is the shop fault the refund repair charge and 50% of new outdrive. If they refuse file small claims for full value of new outdrive. In texas 1 page form takes about 4 minutes to file. Court sets date but highly unlikely you will ever present. They will settle....

Keep in mind that in some locales, if you choose to go to court for small clams, the person you are suing can counter claim against you for time lost. Where I am in Florida if you sue me, I will sue you right back for my time lost having to defend, my drive time to and from court, my mileage, my court fees, down to paying 10 bucks to park at the court parking lot. On an issue like this, my counterclaim would be larger than your initial claim. Some locales are incredibly counter claim friendly, while other locales are not, make sure you do your homework before going that route.

That being said, if you go to court right now you will lose. If you had some sort of mechanical failure you have to bring the boat to the shop that repaired it and give them a chance to inspect, and if need be, give them a chance to make you whole. You did not do any of that, you took it upon yourself to repair it yourself. To add to that, lower units are not serialized. Because you did not bring the boat to the shop in it's broken condition, if you sue the shop, the shop would simply say the lower unit you have in your hand could have come from any boat, and they would be in the right to say that. There is no way for you to prove to the court that the broken lower unit that is now off the boat was originally on the boat. Whenever you make a claim, you have to be able to prove that claim.

Finally, the final question that you need to address is are gears in a Mercruiser sterndrive lifetime items or are they wear and tear items? The answer is they are in fact wear and tear items, they do not last forever, just like your engine will not last forever.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Without actually seeing the damaged gears its hard to determine what went wrong. You wanted seal replaced, why? Previous leaks, rust, water, etc. Was the drive ever low on gear oil and got hot, was there any impact history or prop damage on this drive?

 

[harringtondav]

Mistakes that could cause this during a reseal job:
Loosing a shim or spacer in the upper housing that sets the shim height on the drive shaft drive gear.
Leaving the nut loose on the yoke shaft/drive gear and loosing bearing preload.
Loosing a shim under the lower bearing race on the upper drive shaft that sets the height on the driven gear.
(..assumes they removed the race to use the Merc seal setting tool per the manual)
Not fully tightening/torquing the drive shaft assembly retainer.

For the lower:
Loosing a shim under the pinion drive shaft race that sets FWD pinion height.
Not tightening or torquing the retainer on top of that race.
Not torquing the FWD pinion nut.

....lots of opportunities.

BTW, for $1200 you could buy the special tools and the Merc manual to do a reseal job yourself. ...and probably have beer money left for when you do the job.

Edit: After I hit "post" I remembered the FWD pinion shaft isn't disturbed during a lower reseal. So scratch all that.
So the lower shucking out is a mystery. Unless some of the shrapnel from the upper made it's way into the lower and fouled up that gear set.

 

[JustJason]

Mistakes that could cause this during a reseal job:
Loosing a shim or spacer in the upper housing that sets the shim height on the drive shaft drive gear.
Leaving the nut loose on the yoke shaft/drive gear and loosing bearing preload.
Loosing a shim under the lower bearing race on the upper drive shaft that sets the height on the driven gear.
(..assumes they removed the race to use the Merc seal setting tool per the manual)
Not fully tightening/torquing the drive shaft assembly retainer.

For the lower:
Loosing a shim under the pinion drive shaft race that sets FWD pinion height.
Not tightening or torquing the retainer on top of that race.
Not torquing the FWD pinion nut.

....lots of opportunities.

BTW, for $1200 you could buy the special tools and the Merc manual to do a reseal job yourself. ...and probably have beer money left for when you do the job.

Edit: After I hit "post" I remembered the FWD pinion shaft isn't disturbed during a lower reseal. So scratch all that.
So the lower shucking out is a mystery. Unless some of the shrapnel from the upper made it's way into the lower and fouled up that gear set.

Be careful with those comments. While it is true that the upper unit does require disassembly to re-seal it. It is not true that the lower unit always needs to be disassembled.

This person was asking about a failed lower, not a failed upper. I can reseal a Merc Alpha lower and for the most part, most outboard lower unit gearcases, without disassembly. The only time disassembly is required is if I see scoring on the shafts. However if I pop the old seals out, and do not see scoring, I will reinstall with new seals, pressure test, and if that is a pass, fill it up with oil and off she goes.

Here in the gulf of Mexico, if I was being paid to re-seal the lower unit, I would do my best to not have to pull it apart, as they often simply do not come apart. I don't know how many times you have heated a gear housing cherry red, attempt to pull the carrier only to have the sides of the gear housing crack on you, but that happens all the time. You do not know how this shop re-sealed this lower unit. They might have taken it apart, and they might not have.

 

[Rick Stephens]

Going to do it again. With all the metal in the drained oil, no way the reused upper is going to be long lived. The bearings and gear faces are all coated with a layer of junk.

 

[Searay205]

The correct path would been return to shop and see what they offered. If they offer to repair, replace you are on your way. If not YOU CANNOT REPAIR. YOU ARE NOT A CERTIFIED IDIOT/MECHANIC. Take it down the street to the next "certified idiot" and obtain quote to repair. Either have them repair and send letter of demand to original shop for reimbursement or send the estimate to original shop to repair. You can repair yourself after an unbiased quote is received but not as bullet proof. I won 5 out 5 cases one a diminished value case just last week. Offered $1500, received $8900. Again email communication, unbiased estimates and quotes and the necessary drive to see it through to the end. Nothing you say has merit, it always has to be a "certified, professional, blah blah blah" .

Small claims sucks as you can only sue for actual damages, no punishment.

JustJason is on the right path. You worked on it before giving the shop a chance. Its over you lost. I would still discuss with them and maybe they will throw something at you just for customer service. Nobody cares about your fishing tournament, vacation. Again that what sucks with small claims it actual damages, not mental anguish. Then again its $119 in Texas anyways.

 

[vetting]

I got the reseal because it was starting to puke a little bit of gear oil in the bellows from a small grove on the yoke. It was never in its life run low on gear oil and the oil was never milky. In the 6 lube changes that I've done, its always come out clean without any flakes. Also, I know its a catch 22, but how can a shop just expect you to cart a 27ft boat without a hauling trailer for inspection. At the same point, one could have just swapped on a different broken drive onto the boat before taking it to them. Regardless, the did a full seal job and it grenaded itself it under 6 hours at cruising speed. There wasnt even a hint of noise from it - it just let loose all at once. Lastly, I didnt "work" on the drive. I simply removed it from the boat and drained the oil (which I saved). I really dont want to go "after" the shop. I just want to find out if its something they did or if its just random. If deemed their fault, which I dont know why they would admit to it, I would expect to get the reseal and yoke labor money refunded. Personally I think the reseal work did the drive in, but their probably wont be a way to prove that. The drive has always been flawless and has never made a speck of noise or created flakes before. On a side note, the gear oil that they put in there was yellow.

With the amount of debris in the drive, Im pretty sure it would be impossible to fix/rebuild.

 

[Searay205]

I resealed an Alpha 1 outdrive once. Ran another 15 years. Exact issue oil in bellows. This is water under the bridge now, but Alpha 1 are a dime a dozen on the used market, upper and lower for $800. Obviously look for freshwater no saltwater. I suggest take the drive to shop and see how they want to handle. I never got the memo you get further with honey than vinegar. In other words I take the hardest way possible and keep getting harder. I agree with another poster flush your oil now and see if any metal. probably some sparkles from wear but should look pretty good.

 

[vetting]

The new drive is a whole new 1.47 ratio genuine merc that I got for $2200 out the door - steal of a deal. It took longer to drive an hour to go get it than it did to get the new one on and back in the slip.

 

[Rick Stephens]

IMHO, Other than if the oil used was totally inappropriate for the purpose, there is nothing in the process of a complete reseal of the drive that would or could 'grenade' the lower. The upper, yeah, the lower, no way. All that was done to the lower was pull the water pump to access the base seal, pull and replace the prop seal and replace either the seal or the seal housing for the shift shaft. Nothing is disassembled that can grenade the lower. The upper, yeah, it could be done wrong. But the lower would not have been disassembled.

 

[JustJason]

. I won 5 out 5 cases one a diminished value case just last week. Offered $1500, received $8900. Again email communication, unbiased estimates and quotes and the necessary drive to see it through to the end. Nothing you say has merit, it always has to be a "certified, professional, blah blah blah"

5 out of 5? Are you an attorney? I would love to hear those stories, in PM if need be.

 

[JustJason]

but how can a shop just expect you to cart a 27ft boat without a hauling trailer for inspection.

Don't want to sound crude. But it's nobodies fault but your own if there is no trailer. Nothing is stopping you from having it towed to a marina, hauled out, and placed on a transport, other than money. It's not the shops responsibility to cover your transports costs, it almost never is. If you bought a 60 foot RV and the engine took a dump, you are getting that RV towed into the shop. Same applies to boats. Same applies to cars. That's why they call it the "joys" of boat ownership.