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Mercruiser, alpha one ( gen 1 ) sterndrive full unit

R

RC14

New member
I am in the market for this sterndrive for my speed boat. As it is proving too expensive to buy a new one I was hoping to pick one up second hand. I wonder has anyone got any thoughts on where best to source this part?
Tks
 
the typical difference in price between a "crap shoot" used one, and a new, aftermarket unit with a 3 year no fault warranty is about 3 tanks of gas.

check out the SEI SE106.

If you have lots of time on your hands, and you have pressure testing equipment to pressure test the drive, and feel comfy inspecting the gears and bearings in the upper of a used one, you might save yourself $500 in the short run.

Will the new drive provide 3 seasons of worry free propulsion?.... yep
Will the used drive provide 3 seasons of worry free propulsion?.... roll the dice.
 
RC14 said:
I am in the market for this sterndrive for my speed boat. As it is proving too expensive to buy a new one I was hoping to pick one up second hand. I wonder has anyone got any thoughts on where best to source this part?
Tks
Click to expand...

Ayuh,... Find yerself a Rotten hull with the driveline you Want,...
Buy it, 'n Junk it, you get All the pieces for a total Refit.... ;)
 
They are right about it costing just about as much to buy upper and lower units used. I only needed the upper unit (or I thought that was all I needed) originally and I bought a used one on ebay for around $350.00. The seller claimed that there was twenty hours of use on the unit and that it was from a customer who parted out a boat that had just had a drive installed the season before. Apparently the seller removed the large nut that holds driveshaft and upper gears together, I guess to check condition of gears. After installing drive, I had to remove again because I detected an oil leak at driveshaft seal. After getting that repaired by a shop, I mated upper and lower parts of drive together only to find that I was unable to adjust short shift cable and was not getting correct throw for engagement. It turned out that the lower shift spool had wear and had to be repaired before I finally was able to make the drive shift properly. So, I went the used route and probably pulled the drive off 5 or 6 times before I was able to make it work, and that was with alot of coaching from the guys on this site. Also spent about $500.00 to a marine mechanic to do the repairs and check that everything was good. So, now I am at $850 for a used drive, but was told by mechanic that it looked really good after the repairs. (I guess I will find out soon enough) Anyway, as I said I already had bottom unit and still spent about $850 to get a working drive. So, to make a long story short! Forget the aggravation, second guessing, pressure testing, lack of warranty etc. and spend the extra few bucks (basically around $300 to $400) and you will get a brand new drive without all the rest of the headaches that I had to endure. I am not saying you are going to get an OEM Mercruiser drive for I think $1150-$1250 but it's better than $2800 to I guess $3500. (don't hold me to exact numbers but I know they are really expensive). Finally, the problem with buying a used drive is that you don't know who was running it before you most of the time and who knows whether the thing was starved for oil or got water intrusion or the person hit something hard and the thing just simply hasn't blown apart yet. Basically, nothing more than a crap shoot! best of luck, Tom
P.S. I guess its like the old saying: "penny wise but pound foolish"
 
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