Best Price for a used Alpha One Outdrive

Twinz

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Oct 14, 2009
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I stopped at a friends house yesterday and he showed me what was left of his outdrive. The interior of the case was severley scratched/galled and the gears were all chewed up. He basically wants to replace the entire outdrive unit. Local dealer gave him a quote of $4,000 to replace it. He said he found a place in Worcester, MA that will do a direct swap for $1,500. All he told me was it was a Mercruiser 165 Alpha One Outdrive. He is very handy and can install it himself. We live in the Wester Massachusetts area so where would be a good place to start looking?

Can any of you New Englanders help me (him) out?
 

wca_tim

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May 28, 2007
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Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

you can buy a NEW SEI drive from here or direct from SEI with a great warranty for about 1200... They work great. Lots of people on here have run them. Also, used parts continue to go down in price. I've recently been offered alpha drives for as little as 500. of course a used drive is always a crap shoot, but it removal of the top cover reveals gears and bearings in good condition and draining the lube also indicates it's been well maintained, it's not a bad bet...

I've bought several new upper / lower / complete drives from SEI and they have held up great.

Hope this is helpful
 

JustJason

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Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

What dealer... Doug Russell?

Unfortately your not going to get out of this reliably for under 1500. Keep this in mind.
Years ago a new alpha drive was between 5 and 6K.
5 or 6 years ago, the SEI replacement drives came out, and start at about 1300 bucks (+ shipping +gear lube and +labor if someone else is installing it)
Merc has since lowered the price on a new alpha to between 3 and 4K, depending on the exact version of the one you need.

Buying used is a crap shoot. If you find a used 1 you would want to drain it and pressure test it. If it holds pressure I would still pop the top cab and have a looksee (just make sure you buy a new o-ring for the cap, don't reuse the old one) And you need to make sure you have the correct gearing and input shaft length. Should you buy a used one make sure you get new drain plug seals, and scrape out the old ones.
 

Bondo

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Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

Ayuh,... A Used drive goes for $1,000. +...And it's questionable as to it's condition...
A Brand New SEI is $1300. with a 3 year warranty...

SEI drives have pretty much Killed the used/ rebuilt drive market,,,
 

Howard Sterndrive

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Nov 5, 2008
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Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

I keep seeing references to buying SEI drives here. I searched this site for 20 minutes last week - no SEI stuff here that I can see.
 

180shabah

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Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

I keep seeing references to buying SEI drives here. I searched this site for 20 minutes last week - no SEI stuff here that I can see.

Click "mercruiser drive assemblies" do the drill down thing

You won't see SEI, cause they are just listed as "vendor 199" - New Aftermarket.
 

nola mike

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Apr 22, 2009
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5,023
Re: Best Price for a used Alpha One Outdrive

i've now purchased 2 outdrives in the last 6 months, knowing that i'll be sacrificing reliability for price, at least until i get the bugs worked out. first i got for $175 with a SS prop, 2nd was $80 with an al prop. both off craigs list. first drive for sure has an input shaft leak--i didn't pressure test it prior to purchasing. 2nd drive seems ok so far, except for water pump, which i'm replacing this weekend. it made a growling noise as well, which at first i assumed was u-joints, but upon further review had a very loose fin (fingers crossed) that i think was making the noise. this is of course costing me a lot of time, but i'm learning a lot about the drive, and i enjoy this type of stuff--in the off-season. if i start having trouble in the middle of summer, i'd probably buy an sei. unless i get drive #1 working...

a couple on CL right now in western mass:
http://westernmass.craigslist.org/search/boa?query=alpha|outdrive&catAbbreviation=boa
 

Twinz

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Oct 14, 2009
Messages
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Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

Re: Best Price fo a Used Alpha One Outdrive

Click "mercruiser drive assemblies" do the drill down thing

You won't see SEI, cause they are just listed as "vendor 199" - New Aftermarket.

I feel like more of an idiot, I can't find the "mercruiser drive assemblies" and I have been searching for 30 minutes..............Help :confused:
 

badbowtie

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 18, 2007
Messages
634
Re: Best Price for a used Alpha One Outdrive

itgmarine.com Has the alpha 1 gen 1 for 1195.00 free shipping.
 

dingdongs

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
649
Re: Best Price for a used Alpha One Outdrive

use a search engine and type; sei sterndrives.there in florida
 
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