Water through transom..... Help!!!

[lindb40530]

I have an 84 17 ft Sun Ray with a Chevy 305 OMC sterndrive. I have owned it since new. At the lake I heard water coming in. I thought it was the boot but it appears to be from somewhere on the starboard side of the out drive. I can't really see where it's coming from since they had to cut the back end of the boat to fit the engine. The water shoots out from the side of the engine/outdrive and it does not matter whether the engine is running or not. I got it home hooked up the water to the out drive and ran the engine. There was no water leak. I checked the boot and there are no obvious holes. The amount of water is pretty substantial. Fortunately I had just installed an automatic bilge.

Any ideas as to where to start looking would be appreciated. It doesn't sound like an easy fix to me.....

Thanks

 

[freddyray21]

Re: Water through transom..... Help!!!

sound like the transom seal for the outdrive is bad. If it just started the transom might be okay. have to pull the outdrive, gimbal housing and transom plate to put new seal in.

 

[searay3]

Re: Water through transom..... Help!!!

Have to climb, bend, cuss, whatever it takes to see the leak. Mirror and flashlight. If it is the transom seal, chances are the transom has rot issues. You will see when you take it apart. Don't take it apart until you get an idea of where the water is. (do a search on transom in the restoration forum to get an idea of how big a deal that is) Could be bellows, shift cable boot, hose from the impellor/drive, lots of places it can leak....

 

[lindb40530]

Re: Water through transom..... Help!!!

Yep, thought it was going to be something big. I need to get it back out in the water so I can check out the leak. I ran the muffs again and went over every inch of the boot. The boot looks good and I get no leak from the cooling system. The mirror may be the way to go. I'm going to have to pull the engine cover and the back seats. I'll post when I know more.

Thanks

 

[dhoptay]

Re: Water through transom..... Help!!!

if you can find a ramp thats not to busy leave it on the trailer and just back in until the transom is in then look for leaks much better than possibly sinking. just a thought...

 

[Kevin70]

Re: Water through transom..... Help!!!

See if the bottom transom shield bolts are digging into a rotten transom. Are the bolts tight? Sometimes saltwater can eat these bolts until they quit holding.

 

[lindb40530]

Re: Water through transom..... Help!!!

Found the problem..... Water was coming in around the shift cable.... the clip was bent and the expanded portion of the shift cable was pulled forward allowing water to come in around it.......

Unfortunately a day after fixing that problem the tilt motor went out.......

Never a dull moment..........

 

[NW Redneck]

Re: Water through transom..... Help!!!

LOL I had the exact same problem the first time I put my boat in the water! By the time I parked my trailer and came back my bilge was 3/4 full! Talk about panic! Pulled the shift cable into place and voila!

I had already replaced my rusted out tilt motor. That's not an easy spot to reach in my boat. Could be you got some water in the motor. Mine was a ball of rust inside. I sealed the cr@p out of the new one with epoxy coal tar. Pull it and check inside. Could just need to be dried out. If it's toast, I just saw a couple on Ebay last night. Good luck!

Colin