What did I do wrong on install of alpha 1 water pump ( help )

alan ber · Oct 30, 2013

1984 Mercruiser
4 cylinde
Alpha 1

This is second time replacing water pump on my Alpha 1 within a few weeks.

First time purchased entire Sierra kit changing impellar, gaskets, housing.

My mistake was impellar fins I installed clock wise rather then counter clock wise.
After a few hours of use started smelling burning rubber and noticed temp gauge slowly rising
Lucky this all happened on return and I was at dock getting trailer.

Back home put on rabbit ears, started engine, took off hose that goes from lower unit into heat exchanger
confirmed my thoughts, no water was pumping into exchanger. Closed engine .

Purchased another kit with new impellar, and when I removed lower section too do job again, impellar was fried, with pieces
Chunks of impellar in water tube, up the shaft, and some small pieces worked their way into heat exchanger.
cleaned everything.

Moving forward

Changed everything, installed fins counter clockwise.
Lower part was difficult installing and need help of another set of hands .
Finally installed , started engine and water is pumping fine, thinking too myself good job, and should
have checked the mercruiser book and it clearly showed pics which way impellar should go too avoid
doing job twice, but then noticed my prop was spinning in neutral .?
I thought I did everything as I did the first time which shifted fine and wheel was fine,
but now throttle in neutral, prop is spinning, throttle can't move, cable tight and stalls when I move
out of neutral ever so slightly, steering wheel very tight and won't move unit.

I am going too pull it down again, do I have too remove the new gear oil, which is no big deal but
what did I do wrong, what should I look for, can I loosen enough too keep lower unit attached
with bolts and adjust and re install, so I don't have too call my neighbor.

What did I not line up properly?

thanking you guys in advance
al in Orlando

ktbarrentine · Oct 30, 2013

Re: What did I do wrong on install of alpha 1 water pump ( help )

Sounds like you did not pay attention to the shift shaft orientation when you reassembled. Either that, or the shift fork did not engage properly when you put the drive back on the boat. Most effective way to check and correct is to pull the drive back off the boat (of course, need to ensure the shifter is in fwd to do this). If the throttle cant move as you say, then you can check to see what the position of the shift shaft is by looking up under the bell housing at the front part of the drrive to see if the shift shaft "foot and shoe" are lined up straight fwd. If not, and if you cant get them there with the shifter lever, then you can get around this by draining the oil and removing the bottom half of the drive, followed by removing the upper half.
Once you get the drive off the boat, then you check your shift lever and shift fork to see if they are operating properly (shift to fwd and rev and see what the shift fork in the bell housing does). Also see if your steering is still bound up, indicating another issue.
Also once you get the drive off the boat, then you can do shift checks on the outdrive itself by moving the shift shaft fully clockwise while turning the prop CCW and see if it locks, then noting the position of the shift shaft "foot". If the foot is not directly at 12 oclock position, then you are "off a spline" on the shift shaft orientation and need to lift the shift shaft (have to split the upper/lower to do this, if not already done....also need to make sure your stainless steel washer is in place on top of the shift shaft bushing), re-orient it to 12 oclock (straight fwd) with the prop still "locked" CCW (held with bungie cord), and you should be ready to put it all back together. When reinstalling the drive on the bell housing, make sure the shifter fork properly engages the shift shaft roller. (I have a nifty little plastic holder that holds the fork properly in position when installing the drive).

I hope your probelm is that simple. best of luck!

(edit.... reading Terry's post after mine, and re-reading yours, I get the impression you changed your impeller by just dropping the lower and not removing the whole drive....so I +1 his rec to just drop the lower again to re-align and check the shift shaft... Yes...you need to drain the oil to do this or expect a big mess! And then make sure the oil passage quad seal is properly put back into place afterwards!
What direction was prop rotating when you were in neutral?
Still curious about the bound-up steering issue....this maintenance should not have affected the steering. something else got buggered up when you put the drive back on, but I can't imagin what at this point without more data.... Got pics?)

stonyloam · Oct 30, 2013