Alpha one gen 2, 2011 year model 100 hours, what to do?

[Frankdtank]

Hi there,

New to me 2011 boat, we just hit 100 hours, had 58 when purchased in May...

Just finished servicing the engine and gearing up for the drive.

I believe it is still a "virgin", never been removed and has the original impeller.

Questions:

Assuming that the oil comes out normal, would you pull the drive to check the bearing and grease the drive-shaft and u joints?
No vibrations or rattle to indicate a bad bearing at this time...

Would you replace the impeller at this time?
I already have a kit 47-43026Q06...

Thanks.

 

[Fishermark]

Yes to all the questions. Yes, remove the drive and check the alignment and grease the u-joints (if they are the greasable type). And yes, replace the water pump impeller.

It is approaching five years old - may be time to consider replacing the drive bellows. Or at the very least checking it thoroughly for cracks. etc.

 

[alldodge]

Agree, pull drive, check and grease bearing, if it can be greased. Many have gone to the sealed bearing and the gimbal cannot be greased. If you don't have a grease fitting on the lower starboard side of the transom assembly, the bearing is sealed.

Grease drive shaft U-joints (again if fitting is found).

Check you bellows and replace the impeller. Replacing the impeller starts your baseline as for you and your boat. You now know when it happened.

Grease spline and check alignment

 

[Frankdtank]

Sounds good guys... Thanks for the input.

 

[Frankdtank]

Started looking at bellows and they are all over the place in price...

Can I use Sierra made parts or would you pay more for the Quicksilver?

On my Volvo Penta, replacing the bellows without removing the bell housing was fairly easy, can I do the same on the Alpha ?

Is there a good kit that would include everything needed maybe even a bearing, just in case ?

Thanks

 

[Frankdtank]

Most kits are by "Tungsten Marine LLC "

Are these parts any good ?

The reviews seem to be OK, I have them saved in mt Amazon shopping cart, but i'll wait for opinions before paying

 

[JASinIL2006]

You quite often will get recommendations here to go with OEM bellows... That's what I plan to do.

 

[Frankdtank]

I think you right, why take a chance with cheap parts... Odds are I will only need the seal kit, I guess best take a look first and order what's needed.

 

[alldodge]

Agree, OEM for boots, and look before you buy.

My guess the boots will be fine if the drive has been stored in the down position. It could still be OK but bring the drive up before removing and check under the boot of cracks.

Seal kit, OEM or aftermarket

 

[Frankdtank]

I decided to get the OEM kit

http://www.wholesalemarine.com/repa...0wLTKZFxMUfhsxTqDxJGOyCVZwXoTgZqkzBoCPrrw_wcB

I hope that's the real deal anyways...

The way I see it, once the drive is off might as well replace everything including the bearing.

If done right I should have 3 or 4 trouble free seasons with not much more then oil changes

 

[Frankdtank]

I guess the link above is no good. The kit I am looking at is sold by Wholesale Marine and they claim the manufacturer is Mercury...

 

[alldodge]

I guess the link above is no good. The kit I am looking at is sold by Wholesale Marine and they claim the manufacturer is Mercury...

Wholesale is a competitor and iboats will not allow it to be advertised, which I can't blame them. As for the amount of season you get out of them, there is no guarantee. My 1995 Rinker has the original boots, cable and gimbal bearing. I check it out every year and so far so good, just as an example

 

[Frankdtank]

Wow, 20 years on boots and bearing is impressive... I better inspect mine first

 

[JoLin]

One more thing- pull the prop and grease the shaft. Oughta do that once a year to keep the prop from freezing to the outdrive.

 

[thumpar]

I would pull the drive and replace the impeller at least every other year. It is not a hard job and always gave me piece of mind. When I did the bellows on my Alpha I went aftermarket but only because I was selling it. If I was planning on keeping it I would have done OEM. Make sure you check alignment when the drive is off. You can get the bar cheap on ebay.

 

[Frankdtank]

Pulled the drive today and all seems well. Alignment tool is on the way (sold my old one when I went inboard for a year, who knew ...

Thanks for all the replies, I am glad a didn't spend needlessly on a transom kit...

 

[philipp10]

If it was my boat all I would do is oil changes, grease the u-joints (which I doubt can even be greased) and inspect the boots. 100 hours and 5 years is NOTHING. I have a 2004 with 225 hours and the original boot is fine. Don't "fix" what ain't broke.

 

[Frankdtank]

You are right... I did replace the impeller, but other then that it's just oil change and greasing...

 

[Frankdtank]

The drive is back on, but of course nothing is simple or easy...

After installation the boat had no reverse gear and neutral felt odd as well. The prop would only turn CCW and cause the lower unit to clank?

The shifter was in forward the whole time and I was confident the linkage was straight with the roller in the right position when the drive was installed.

I figured I messed up during the impeller replacement so I puller the lower unit off.

From here I am kind of guessing, but I think what happened was that I must have turned the prop CW which causes the L shaped shift link to turn from a 12 o clock just enough so that it will not engage?

I turned the prop CCW till it engaged the shaft and made sure the link was pointed to 12 when installing.

At this point we regained full forward and reverse, however I thought the shifter felt "rubbery" ?

Hooked up the hose and cranked her up. There was a louder then normal clunk when engaging forward and reverse and I thought it was vibrating more then normal as well.

Shut it down cussing up a storm, thinking I really messed up something... Got back in the boat and tried the shifter one more time and it was smooth as butter...

Cranked up the boat again and it shifted great forward and reverse and all seemed well. Now I need to water test, but I think it will be just fine...

Questions:

Can anybody please explain to me what happened here?

What's was causing the rubbery shifter and is it normal to sort itself out like this?

I want to understand what happened here as to be able to prevent it in the future

 

[Rick Stephens]

I can't think of a darn thing that would do that on a Gen2. Nothing that should pop back into place.