Logo
FULL SITE MENU

Mystery leak on a 1995 Celebrity 18” Runabout with a 4.3LX/V6 Alpha One sterndrive.

M

Mike MGM

New member
Mystery leak on a 1995 Celebrity 18” Runabout with a 4.3LX/V6 Alpha One sterndrive.

1995 Celebrity 18” runabout with a 4.3LX/V6 Alpha One sterndrive.
Engine serial number OF590542
Transom serial number OF574323
Drive serial number OF521054

Engine only has 227 hours on it. Bought the boat from a neighbor in Arizona four years ago. He had it sitting for about 15 years, thus the reason for the low engine hours. Before I bought it, he had the seals replaced on the outdrive. The U Joint bellows, shift cable bellows, etc. have been replaced and appear to be in good shape. No cracks or brittleness are observed.

I am getting water in the bilge, and I cannot figure out where it is coming from. It appears to fill up faster if there is significant weight in the boat. Six big guys Vs my wife and I in the boat alone.

I have tried the following.
  • Check the outdrive bellows for cracks or brittleness. Didn’t see any. Felt areas I couldn’t visually check. The rubber seems pliable with no felt cracks or splits. (seals were replaced less than five years ago)
  • Run the engine for 10 minutes with a water hose to the outdrive and check for leaks. Don’t appear to be any in the boat.
  • Filled the bilge with water just below the starter and raised the front of the boat on the trailer to the max and looked for leaks around the transom. Didn’t see any leaks or drips. I only filled it to below the starter.
  • Put the boat in the water and crawled back there to look for a leak with a good 12V trouble light. It is really hard to see but I could tell water was coming in slowly but couldn’t figure out where it was coming in the bilge.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. I can pull the outdrive and replace the bellows, but I do not think this is the problem. A guy at the lake said he had an old Celebrity with a mystery leak, and he said he had a similar problem and used 3M 5200 and just ran a bead around the outside transom on the back of the boat. Is this a good idea or is this just a waste of time.

I hate to pull the whole outdrive and replace the seals when they look at feel OK and still have the leak. The one really fully thing is it seems to leak more when the boat is loaded with 6 people just 2. This could be a red herring but the only difference I see is that I cannot explain.

Please give your expert suggestions. I will try a few before redoing the whole bellow’s replacement.

Thanks
Mike
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9053.jpg
    IMG_9053.jpg
    49.4 KB · Views: 6
  • IMG_9057.jpg
    IMG_9057.jpg
    52.1 KB · Views: 6
I would pull the outdrive off and look at ujoints and the inside of bellows for water. If water is present then its possible the leak is at gasket between drive and gimbal or Oring at water inlet hole is bad/missing or misaligned.

If no water present in bellows/ujoint area then take a closer look/feel at shift cable bellows where the hose clamp is.
If the bellows edge rolled and did not seat all the way on the bellows flange water will leak in thru bellows.

When you say water appears when its a group of fat bastards in the boat, do you mean when running or just floating and engine not running?

Check all rubber exhaust hose clamps and tighten them all. Two per side of connections. These may look tight but in reality are not. Water can and does seep out if not tight.
 
kghost said:
I would pull the outdrive off and look at ujoints and the inside of bellows for water. If water is present then its possible the leak is at gasket between drive and gimbal or Oring at water inlet hole is bad/missing or misaligned.

If no water present in bellows/ujoint area then take a closer look/feel at shift cable bellows where the hose clamp is.
If the bellows edge rolled and did not seat all the way on the bellows flange water will leak in thru bellows.

When you say water appears when its a group of fat bastards in the boat, do you mean when running or just floating and engine not running?

Check all rubber exhaust hose clamps and tighten them all. Two per side of connections. These may look tight but in reality are not. Water can and does seep out if not tight.
Click to expand...
kgghost - Thank you for the insight. To answer the question it seeems to fill up faster when 6 fat guys are floating and the engine is not running. Does that change anything on your assessment of what to check and replace?
 
No it does not change what i described.

The rocking of the boat with 6 fat bastards can cause water to reach areas it may not with just your wife.

Although the shift cable bellows concern would be there all the time not just when a lot of weight is in boat.

One other thing to check is the transom assembly bolts/nuts if you can get to them.

Remember, when a boat sits for a very long time things can loosen up due to shrinkage especially rubber connections.

The exhaust tubes have two rubber connections each. One at elbow and second at down tube (i believe).
Each rubber connection has 4 FOUR hose clamps.....not one or two but 4.
When I worked in the business it was not uncommon to have to tighten these hose clamps to stop minor leaking...
 
Back
Top