Drive and running problems

"Hey everyone,

The boat h

"Hey everyone,

The boat has a 1980 5.7l mercruiser with an alpha 1.

I replaced the bellows, shift cable, gimbal bearing, and serviced the drive.

The boat ran great on the muffs for 15 minutes, and shifted fine.

I took it to the river. It ran great for 30 minutes. It was then hard to start once I turned it off for a short period of time.

I headed back in. It cut out. Once it started I couldn't get it to go in to gear. If, I throttled up, smoke would pour out. The smoke had a rubber smell.

It would only stay running for a short period of time The engine never overheated.

I took the shift cable off of the engine once the boat was on the trailer. I tested it by hand. The drive functioned fine. The engine was not running.

I'm thinking that the coupler went bad. I just don't understand why the engine would not run properly at the same time.

I realize that it would have overheated without the drive turning. I understand that the coupling possibly just went up because of age.

I just don't understand why the engine won't run. It wouldn't be under any strain. It would just overheat without the impeller in the drive cooling it. I feel that I'm missing something.

Actually, I'm probably missing everything. I'm fairly new at this.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Skip"

If the coupler or the gimbal i

If the coupler or the gimbal is binding it would put strain on the motor even out of gear.

"Thanks for the help Bill. I h

"Thanks for the help Bill. I hope that you are still reading this. Are you saying that the drive probably locked up? If so, how would I determine if the coupler needs replacing? I really would like to avoid that job.

I assume that the smoke that smelled like rubber means that the coupler is toast.

Thanks, Skip"