Re: What's the worst outdrive you know of?
Actually it's OK to run a stringer with the drive "a little" up at idle speeds as long as the water squirter is squirting water on the ball gears. Using the tilt for trim is not smart.<br /><br />I am a former stringer victim myself. I agree that these are the bottom of the heap. But there are some good points:<br /><br />1). I actually liked the ball gear setup. Couldn't see any noticeable wear in 6 years (1800 hours) of use. And it was used when I got it. Have to keep that squirter squirting.<br /> <br />2). I think the electric shift aspect of the early stringers (pre-78) gets a bad rap. Never had a single problem with mine. Always shifted only at idle, always a nice, smooth, quiet shift. Very nice during docking manuevers.<br /><br />3). The turning radius of a stringer-equipped boat will always be less than the others. The drive pivots a full 90 degrees. All others are somewhat less.<br /><br />Now the bad: The worst part about these drives is the upper housing. There are too many penetrations (steering shaft, pivot points, dip stick) allowing too many potential leak points. For the top pivot point, there is only an O-ring sealing a rotating interface with a pressure diferential. This will leak.<br /><br />OMC sold a huge number of these things. So ebay will have used parts for a while to come.<br />mike
Actually it's OK to run a stringer with the drive "a little" up at idle speeds as long as the water squirter is squirting water on the ball gears. Using the tilt for trim is not smart.<br /><br />I am a former stringer victim myself. I agree that these are the bottom of the heap. But there are some good points:<br /><br />1). I actually liked the ball gear setup. Couldn't see any noticeable wear in 6 years (1800 hours) of use. And it was used when I got it. Have to keep that squirter squirting.<br /> <br />2). I think the electric shift aspect of the early stringers (pre-78) gets a bad rap. Never had a single problem with mine. Always shifted only at idle, always a nice, smooth, quiet shift. Very nice during docking manuevers.<br /><br />3). The turning radius of a stringer-equipped boat will always be less than the others. The drive pivots a full 90 degrees. All others are somewhat less.<br /><br />Now the bad: The worst part about these drives is the upper housing. There are too many penetrations (steering shaft, pivot points, dip stick) allowing too many potential leak points. For the top pivot point, there is only an O-ring sealing a rotating interface with a pressure diferential. This will leak.<br /><br />OMC sold a huge number of these things. So ebay will have used parts for a while to come.<br />mike
Everyones version of "noraml" is a bit different.<br /><br />I have actually seen them spit the gears right out the back when hammered. Granted, that was with a mildly hopped up engine.<br /><br />If you ham hand them with standard power, you're still "risking it".