Stern Drive Leaking Into Bilge

[obsessed]

Hello Everyone

Great Site.

I have an Alpha One SS (I Think) Drive unit number is OA577821 that late last season was losing oil every time I used it. I would drain/change the oil, but never really found it like chocolate milk indicating water was getting into the drive. Eventually I found it coming into the bilge.

This year I pulled the stern drive. I undid the two hydraulic pistons and then the six bolt holding on the stern drive. Once the drive was broken loose gear oil immediately started leaking out.

1. Should gear oil have leaked from this cavity? To Me It appears the gear oil should stay in the drive.

Once on the bench I did a leak down. It does not hold 15PSI overnight. It drops at least 5-10 PSI.

So I have narrowed it down to a have a leak and it looks like it is in the upper portion. Any suggestion on what parts I should order ahead of time and how I should proceed? Are any particular seals troublesome. Any good links with step by steps on disassembly? I have a SELOC manual but it is not great.

Here are a couple of pictures of it on the bench:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=2551DA7ADE88D326!132

Thanks
Trent

 

[Don S]

Re: Stern Drive Leaking Into Bilge

Actually, it's not a SS, just a standard 1986 Alpha I drive.
You have water and gear lube in your ujoint bellows. At minimum, you need a new input shaft seal in the outdrive, probably the yoke due to rust. Ujoints, gimbal bearing, and bellows. The gear lube in the drive is no doubt milky with water and needs changed.

Here is a link to download the OEM service manual http://www.4shared.com/office/L17_ufPa/06__Drives_R-A1_83-90.html?
and you can retire your Seloc back to being a knee pad.

The reason for the oil in the bellows is from water in the bellows getting into the drive and forcing the overfull drive oil back out into the bellows mixture.
Common problem with boats that don't get enough preventive maintenance.
When was the drive off the boat last? No doubt the impeller is probably due for replacement, how old is the shift cable?
Probably time to set some money aside for some repairs.

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Stern Drive Leaking Into Bilge

late to the picnic, see above.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Stern Drive Leaking Into Bilge

late to the picnic, see above.

Ayuh,.... Don'tcha hate that,...

Welcome Aboard Obessed,... ya may as well throw in a lower shift cable kit, while ya got it all apart...

 

[obsessed]

Re: Stern Drive Leaking Into Bilge

So I got the upper drive shaft assembly out. I attached some pics and have a couple more questions

Pic 1: Drive Shaft assembly. Is this the input shaft seal you were talking about? Does the drive shaft assembly need to be disassemmbled to changed that o ring?
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=2551da7ade88d326#cid=2551DA7ADE88D326&id=2551DA7ADE88D326!136

Pic 2: Is this streak any indication of were it was leaking? Possible bearing that allowed it to drift? Or should I just replace the ORing and try it. It really hasn't been much work to get to this point.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=2551da7ade88d326#cid=2551DA7ADE88D326&id=2551DA7ADE88D326!135

Thanks
T

 

[ktbarrentine]

Re: Stern Drive Leaking Into Bilge

So I got the upper drive shaft assembly out. I attached some pics and have a couple more questions

Pic 1: Drive Shaft assembly. Is this the input shaft seal you were talking about? Does the drive shaft assembly need to be disassemmbled to changed that o ring?
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=2551da7ade88d326#cid=2551DA7ADE88D326&id=2551DA7ADE88D326!136

Pic 2: Is this streak any indication of were it was leaking? Possible bearing that allowed it to drift? Or should I just replace the ORing and try it. It really hasn't been much work to get to this point.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=2551da7ade88d326#cid=2551DA7ADE88D326&id=2551DA7ADE88D326!135

Thanks
T

Actually...this is just the tip of your iceberg. You are pointing to the o-ring on upper shaft carrier. You need to disassemble the shaft from the carrier to reveal the shaft seal. You really need the manual to guide you in this. You also need to closely inspect the yoke shaft where the seal is to see how bad it is, as Don has already mentioned, probably needs replaced, as well as the u-joints, bellows and probably the lower shift cable. Curious... how did you remove the retainer nut (the castle-ated nut). Right way is with a retainer nut spanner...wrong way is with a punch, hammer, etc... And you will need to torque this retainer on reassembly to 200 ft-lbs. Got a torque wrench handy? Good luck!

 

[obsessed]

Re: Stern Drive Leaking Into Bilge

UPDATE

So I took the nut off the upper drive shaft assembly and disassembled the upper shaft as seen in this picture:
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=2551da7ade88d326#cid=2551DA7ADE88D326&id=2551DA7ADE88D326!137

The dis assembly gave me some unexpected results:

1.The gear did not separate from the bearings. The two pieces with the red arrows will not come apart by hand. I have not tried a small brass punch or anything else yet. The manual Don S. provided suggest once the nut is off it would all just slide apart.

2. I can spin the gear relative to the outer race, but only about 15 degrees and it sticks. Based on the reassembly portion, I think this should spin freely with only 6-10 inch pounds of torque. Am I correct?

Thanks again the info here is so helpful!

T