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Stern Drive leaks 90w! 3 Steps Forward & 1 Back.

Paid $100 to have all the seals and 0-rings in the upper replaced. Comes with a 30 day guarantee. Tomorrow I'll reattach the lower and pressure test the unit. If it holds pressure, the way it should, I'll put it back together and give it a test with water attached.
 
Never seems to go the way "I" want things to go. Mated the lower onto the upper and gave it a pressure test. Made sure no air leaks at drain plug and used a plug on the upper air bleed. Put, as near as I can tell, 13-14 psi for 10 minutes and it bled down to 5 psi. Gonna go with this as a favorable test, run it with water and then drain a little 90w off after about 10-15 minutes to see if water is mixing with lube. Still have to change the exhaust tube and shift cable bellows before installation of the outdrive. Looks like Monday is another day to work on it.


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No. Bkeeding down to 5 psi in several minutes is no good.

Find the leak!!

It may be in your pressure set up or a slow leaking seal...move the prop shaft and shift shaft and the vertical drive shaft while under pressure....
 
kghost said:
No. Bkeeding down to 5 psi in several minutes is no good.
Find the leak!!
It may be in your pressure set up or a slow leaking seal...move the prop shaft and shift shaft and the vertical drive shaft while under pressure....
Click to expand...

I give your suggestion a try tomorrow. Thanks
 
kghost said:
No. Bkeeding down to 5 psi in several minutes is no good.

Find the leak!!

It may be in your pressure set up or a slow leaking seal...move the prop shaft and shift shaft and the vertical drive shaft while under pressure....
Click to expand...

This is my third attempt to make this post stick. I did as you suggested and it worked out great. Put 14 lbs psi and held 15 minutes with no drop in pressure. Ran it twice, after installing back on boat, and she runs cool and shifts nicely. Also installed a new exhaust tube. I have a remote lube reservoir and she holds her level. Rebuild the starboard trim ram with a new tube and will attack that problem tomorrow. Thanks for your help, "once again," and hope to try a sea trial Thursday or Friday.
 
"DANG IT!" Just knew I wouldn't get to the boat ramp for launch. For "some reason" there is noise coming from the outdrive. Hard to describe as maybe gear grinding off and on and more so in reverse. I have about 1/4" prop shaft end play and am thinking that would be too much. It never made this noise before I had the upper serviced, with new seals and o-rings, but can't say for sure if it's the upper. My best guess is the lower. Thinking of removing the drain club, which is magnetized, and see if there is any metal on it.

May even be that it's not going all the way into gear. I'll pull the shift cable and do it by hand and see what that does.
 
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I think I have the noise in the lower figured out. Illustrated parts breakdown "doesn't" show a washer between the brass locking washer and the locking tab. I put a washer in between the two, tightened the nut onto the locking tab and all the grinding when shifted into both forward and reverse disappeared!
 
Took the "old girl" out this morning and everything worked "better" than I expected! Shifted smooth, plained out well and just generally ran great! However, there is one tiny problem. It's leaking water into the engine compartment from somewhere. I would "guess" it's coming in at a rate of about 1/2 gallon over five minutes. After doing a little web searching I have a few ideas on how to check for water leaks. The bilge pump took very good care of pumping the water out though. ​I just hope that it's not the exhaust "Y" tube as that requires the engine to be removed!!! I still have to rebuild the port side tilt/trim cylinder cause it's working hard and pump is straining.
 
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The best way to fund water leak is to lift front of trailer way up or park trailer on good sloped hill. Fill boat from inside with water and see where it leaks out..
 
kghost said:
The best way to fund water leak is to lift front of trailer way up or park trailer on good sloped hill. Fill boat from inside with water and see where it leaks out..
Click to expand...

Thanks Jack! Should I fill it up to the gunnels? Ha Just kidding! Gonna try and get on troubleshooting the leak problem Monday or Tuesday. Have to catch up on the "honey do" list now that I know the boat will still float! LoL
 
Well some strong profane words are in order! "Shoot fire and save the matches!" LoL Filled up my engine compartment with water and found my leak. It's leaking around the bottom of the gimbal housing! You guessed it, rotten transom. When time permits I'll pull the engine and outdrive and use a product called CPES, (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer), to make repairs. Lot of work but can't afford to pay the pro's. Also I'm way into the boat financially and just can't back out nor do I want to push my problems off on some unsuspecting person.

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I've done it, but I cut mine out all the way to good wood, then replaced with new wood and fiberglass. I did this the same time that I redid the whole floor, all the way down to the hull. New stringers, foam, floor, fiberglass. It was a chore for sure. Wear a shirt when cutting the fiberglass!
 
floatin radio said:
I've done it, but I cut mine out all the way to good wood, then replaced with new wood and fiberglass. I did this the same time that I redid the whole floor, all the way down to the hull. New stringers, foam, floor, fiberglass. It was a chore for sure. Wear a shirt when cutting the fiberglass!
Click to expand...

Yes that is also an option I should consider. Cut all the rotten wood out, from the inside, and replace with new wood and fiberglass. That's a lot more work but is a more traditionally permanent repair.
 
It really wasn't that bad, I keept the outside Fiberglass of course, set saw at shallow depth donut wouldn't cut through last layer of fiberglass and chiseled out the rest . You tube wasn't around when I did it
 
Yesterday, as a temporary fix, I cleaned around the gimbal housing perimeter with lacquer thinner. I used marine sealer adhesive all the way around the outside. This morning I took the boat out for about an hour and it's not leaking. When cooler weather comes I'll decide what is the best method to repair the transom.
 
It's amazing what can be done when you find the right "shade tree!" LoL Now I'm going to start a new post concerning the top speed of tug boat! 30mph wide open seems a little slow. I was getting 38mph wide open.

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Rebuilt the port side tile/trim cylinder this morning and it's nice that the outdrive goes up and down once again. The large tube nut seals were totally hard and worn out would not allow the shaft to move freely. It was frozen causing the pump to labor. Found some hi-back seats on Craigslist for $20 each. I just don't care for Captain seats and like the fold down of the hi-backs. If I move swiftly between the Captain seats it would grab me like turn stiles.


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Rebuilt the post side tilt trim ram and it the outdrive goes up and down just fine after bleeding air out of lines and both rams. "Now" when the outdrive is in the "up" position it slowly drops to the down position! Re-bled both rams and lines and no air. "What the heck!" Haven't hit the manual yet but am thinking it has to be the pump. What ya think?
 
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