Second outdrive in the past month!

[hawkrdr]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

Don,
No I understand what you are saying. Only reason I am now in this situation is the drives are covered by warranty, so just short of the down time and shipping costs, I'm not having to pay anything.
I am hopeful that sei will get this squared away as they have gotten fairly decent reviews from other folks. I'm just hopeful that I will be able to do the same when this is all said and done..

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

I am hopeful that sei will get this squared away as they have gotten fairly decent reviews from other folks. I'm just hopeful that I will be able to do the same when this is all said and done..

Most people on here have reported that the SEI drives are fine. It's VERY possible that you have simply gotten a couple of "bad" ones.

My guess is that they'll REALLY want to make this right!! They know what people say on all the major boat "Boards"

They want good press.....not bad.......

 

[wca_tim]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

the 1.62 gears do have the smallest teeth and would be the most prone to failure with weaker metal and especially more prone to failure if there are slight differences in tolerance or if any of the bearings, shafts, gears, case dimensions are a little sloppier...

When I had them rebuild a 1.6 upper that ate the upper gears (no evidence of water intrusion), they recommended that the lower be flushed with lower viscosity oil to remove the metal contamination from the upper.

I've generally had good experiences with their drives, as have friends that have purchased them, just sharing some facts.

Just saying...

 

[sschefer]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

So nobody thinks its an alignment issue and with a few exceptions you all think its the drive that's the root cause. O.K. so why did the original drive fail? And then the replacement failed and the replacement for that replacement failed and the replacement for that one also failed. Doesn't it seem just a little odd... Come on, there are to many boats on the water with identical drives and no problems.

But for the sake of argument, I won't rule out an extremely rare set of coincidental failures. However, before I threw another drive on it I'd at least be looking at the motor mounts and stringers. Heck I might even check the crank end-play and vibration damper.

Something is causing and excessive thrust load on those drives.

 

[hawkrdr]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

The mechanic did do a flush on the lower and presure tested ok.
Just for my sanity I am having them check the shift linkages as well as the alignment.
Outdrive was filled bottom , then top.

If there was an issue with alignment wouldn't the drive be hard to pull off?

 

[cdiamond]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

This SEI business has always made me laugh
People always tout the 'no-fault warranty'

It's called - marketing !

How else could they entice anybody
to buy a cheap Chinese knockoff ?

To anybody with common sense
you would understand that these units
are so cheap -that they can afford to give them away

A small nugget of wisdom I once heard
and would like to share

PRICE -is what you pay
VALUE - is what you get

or stated more simply
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

Happy Boating to All

 

[Doernuth]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

When you have the mechanic install the new drive make sure he checks the shift interupter. If the interupter is disconnected or not functioning it can put excessive load on the upper when shifting.

The interupter kills the engine for a fraction of a second when shifting to make it smoother to shift and to reduce stress on the gears in the drive.

If it is failing to function you might not even notice it unless you are familiar with how the boat ****s into and out of gear, which if it is new, with new drives, you are not.

Just a thought....

 

[searay3]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

If i am reading this right, you fill the drive from the bottom then top???? I hope you mean you are filling from the bottom until it comes out of the top or vent. If you are trying to fill from the top you are starving the upper of oil. Mebbe I'm reading it wrong...

 

[wca_tim]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

I have to be fair here. I have one sei lower that I've RUN THE SNOT out of - we're talking a 1.81 upper with 450 horsepower and the lower turning a 15" x 29" 4 blade stainless prop yielding slip rates of below 10%. With that gear ratio the lower is seeing over 800 ft pounds of torque and stiff arming the throttle with a big wheel like that means the drive sees about all the sasociated strain.

IN the same breath, I've got a merc lower I snapped the drive shaft on when it was behind a 4.3...

when you look at an sei drive you get an awful lot for what you are paying. a merc drive costs a LOT more. I would say that the ses is a better value than the merc... at least for most of us it is.

This SEI business has always made me laugh
People always tout the 'no-fault warranty'

It's called - marketing !

How else could they entice anybody
to buy a cheap Chinese knockoff ?

To anybody with common sense
you would understand that these units
are so cheap -that they can afford to give them away

A small nugget of wisdom I once heard
and would like to share

PRICE -is what you pay
VALUE - is what you get

or stated more simply
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

Happy Boating to All

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

Pricing on Mercury drive have been reduced to compete with SEI, about $150 difference. As posted earlier dissasemble and flush the non failed unit do to debris and alignment is not a issue as they have u-joint coupling between drive an gimbal.

 

[jopes]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

Pricing on Mercury drive have been reduced to compete with SEI, about $150 difference. As posted earlier dissasemble and flush the non failed unit do to debris and alignment is not a issue as they have u-joint coupling between drive an gimbal.

Where can the Merc drives be bought in that price range?

 

[Pete104]

Re: Second outdrive in the past month!

They can't!