Water in the Gear Lube, but it's holding pressure?

[JoLin]

A little stumped. I got very sick last fall. Managed to winterize the engines before I landed in the hospital, but never got to the drives (Alpha Gen 2's). When I drained the port-side drive lube yesterday I got about an ounce of milkshake, followed by lube that had some water in it... gray swirls that are visible when the lube hits the drain pan.

I've been here before, so I pulled the drive and pressurized it to exactly 10 psi. I reused the old drain screw gasket in case it was the problem. Two hours later, no change. I rotated the input shaft 180 degrees. Another two hours and still no change. An hour ago I rotated it 90 degrees, but again, no change. The gauge needle is still bang on 10 psi.

Having 2 old drives (1992) I've fixed several leaking seals but always found the problem pretty quickly. Anyone have an idea of what happened here?

 

[alldodge]

My first thought is the lower shaft bearing/seal. I mention both the bearing and seal because maybe the bearing is worn and has to much side play. Grab the prop shaft and see if you can get it to leak by jerking it up/down/left/right. Next put a few inches of vacuum on it and do the same thing.

If after this, you might have picked up a small piece of fishing line and it caused a small leak and now its gone.

Suggest check the drive at the end of the season, don't wait till Spring

 

[JoLin]

Suggest check the drive at the end of the season, don't wait till Spring

I always have, but it was too hard to reach from a hospital bed. Double pneumonia- 3.5 weeks in a hospital followed by 3 weeks in physical rehab. Caught it in early October, came home just before Thanksgiving. :grumpy:

Thanks for the tips.

 

[alldodge]

Sorry for your troubles, glad to hear your on the mends

 

[thumpar]

I would try doing the vacuum on it. It has been suggested that 5lbs of vacuum is enough.

 

[Grub54891]

Jiggle the shift shaft. Common place to leak.

 

[achris]

Agree with all the above, but will add some theory.
Pressure tests check the ability of the drive to hold oil in, but not to stop water getting in. For that you need to do a vacuum test.

 

[JoLin]

I don't have a vacuum tester anymore. I'll think about cobbling one together. In the meantime I'll do some "jiggling" and see if that reveals anything. Thanks, guys.

 

[wellcraft-classic210]

Hey JoLin -- Glad your feeling well enough to be back on task --

This may be old news but -- 1 added thought on possible points of water entry --

Any water in the leaking into the main drive shaft bellows can get forced into the drive as the shaft spins due to that seal not being designed to be submerged ( only 1 seal -- Not back to back seals )

 

[JoLin]

Gimbal bellows (and the others) is all good- dry inside- no water intrusion. Thanks.

I jiggled things around with no loss of pressure. Still held 10 psi. I might just let it go unless/until it gets worse. Given that the drive is 26 years old, I might want to buy a new SEI lower rather than reseal the old one. I'll have to think that one over.

Thanks, guys.