water stream from drive unit

[thunderroad]

I'm still in the head-scratchin stage of learning about outdrives so bear with me, please.<br />I see a stream of water (warm) exiting the drive unit in the vicinity of the shift shaft. It appears to be coming out horizontally and is a nice round stream (about the diameter of a pencil) so I don't think it's coming from a crack. Is this one of the places where water normally exhausts from the unit or do I have a problem? The gear lube doensn't show any signs of being contaminated with water and every thing else seems ok.<br />It's a 160 Mercruiser in a 69 Formula F-190.

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: water stream from drive unit

My guess is that it is some kind of tell-tale, (like an out-board). However, this is just a guess....J

 

[Bondo]

Re: water stream from drive unit

My Guess is,..... You might have a Problem.........<br /><br />I can't think of any Tattle-Tales on the older Merc. drives............<br /><br />Other than the Exhaust Reliefs,.... And they tend to dribble,+ sputter out the water,.... No Steady Stream........

 

[thunderroad]

Re: water stream from drive unit

Yeah, I need to get a flashlight and look closer. It was near dusk when I discovered it. It's not a high pressure stream or anything but it is steady and symetrical in shape, like maybe a plug or bolt is missing somewhere.

 

[kwoolard]

Re: water stream from drive unit

I had a stream from my bell housing in the past and it turned out to be that water cavity in the bell housing had been corroded through with sand or some other means and was shooting a 1/4" diameter stream out. It was such a perfect size hole I just knew there had to be a plug or some fitting that went there. But discovered the corrosion when I removed the outdrive and looked down in the water cavity. <br /><br />Just a thought.

 

[thunderroad]

Re: water stream from drive unit

That could very well be what I'm seeing too. This boat has spent a lot of time in the Missouri River and sand causes some problems from time to time there. What did you do to fix it? Repair? Replace? Plug?<br /><br />thanks

 

[kwoolard]

Re: water stream from drive unit

Replaced the bell housing. I thought about JB Welding the hole but the cavity was so eaten that it wouldn't have lasted but one more season with JB weld. The bell housing cost me $300. Not sure what your model would run.