Hi Gentlemen and happy May and looking forward to some physical distance boating in the weeks ahead.
Some vitals;
2001 V/P 7.4l GI PEFS - DP SM 1.78 drive, and TSK SX MHP transom assemply
Last year I had the air entrainment problem that we eventually chased to the plastic nipple (missing a gasket...) that got fixed. After we solved that we had another issue. There was some leaking through, what we think, was from the transom assemply by the steering arm.
As some backstory the year prior (summer 2018 first season with the boat) I had some leaking at the transom assemply and we were able to tighten the bolts on the assemply which stopped the leaking. I monitored all season and didn't see any additional leaking.
Then last year (summer 2019) we thought it was a similar thing, when launching the boat on steep ramp which submerged the whole outdrive and transom assemply we saw some leaking. (we had taken the clear tubing off as part of the air entrainment effort and wanted to make sure none of the hoses leaked before completely dropping it the water - leaked when motor wasn't running).
We poked around with cable cameras, stood on our heads trying to see things, but couldn't find the source of the leak. However, once the boat was in and floating level - no leak. In reviewing the schematetic since everything else was dry it seemed like this was the only location it could have come from was the coverplate on the transom assemply. I kept a shop vac on the boat and religiously shop vac'ed any rain water to keep the bilge dry so I could keep and eye on leaking. Happy to say it stayed dry all season. So one guess is the gasket on the cover plate may have gone bad (Coverplate #27 & Gasket #13 on diagram for my unit) - the only time that cover plate gets submerged is on a steep ramp launch (once a year). The cover plate sits well above the waterline.
I thought I read mention of something like this in one thread but now I can't find it. Starting to think about it again this spring as I put my pre-launch work list together. Has anyone experienced something similar? Seems swapping the gasket isn't too big a deal...but if it is a sign of something more serious I would like to know.
Thanks for any insight and take it easy on me please!
Some vitals;
2001 V/P 7.4l GI PEFS - DP SM 1.78 drive, and TSK SX MHP transom assemply
Last year I had the air entrainment problem that we eventually chased to the plastic nipple (missing a gasket...) that got fixed. After we solved that we had another issue. There was some leaking through, what we think, was from the transom assemply by the steering arm.
As some backstory the year prior (summer 2018 first season with the boat) I had some leaking at the transom assemply and we were able to tighten the bolts on the assemply which stopped the leaking. I monitored all season and didn't see any additional leaking.
Then last year (summer 2019) we thought it was a similar thing, when launching the boat on steep ramp which submerged the whole outdrive and transom assemply we saw some leaking. (we had taken the clear tubing off as part of the air entrainment effort and wanted to make sure none of the hoses leaked before completely dropping it the water - leaked when motor wasn't running).
We poked around with cable cameras, stood on our heads trying to see things, but couldn't find the source of the leak. However, once the boat was in and floating level - no leak. In reviewing the schematetic since everything else was dry it seemed like this was the only location it could have come from was the coverplate on the transom assemply. I kept a shop vac on the boat and religiously shop vac'ed any rain water to keep the bilge dry so I could keep and eye on leaking. Happy to say it stayed dry all season. So one guess is the gasket on the cover plate may have gone bad (Coverplate #27 & Gasket #13 on diagram for my unit) - the only time that cover plate gets submerged is on a steep ramp launch (once a year). The cover plate sits well above the waterline.
I thought I read mention of something like this in one thread but now I can't find it. Starting to think about it again this spring as I put my pre-launch work list together. Has anyone experienced something similar? Seems swapping the gasket isn't too big a deal...but if it is a sign of something more serious I would like to know.
Thanks for any insight and take it easy on me please!
