1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O Outdrive Fried!!

[Teode]

Hello everyone! I,ve been lurking on the forums since March when I bought a 17' Galaxy. I was having a ton of problems with it since the begining. Probably not my best purchase ever but I figured I would make the best of it. So far, here's what all I have done.

Replaced the floor and carpet
Had all bellows replaced
Had outdrive serviced with new impeller.
Had new headgasket installed.
Rebuild the carb.

Boat was running great. Had a friend with me on Friday. We were water skiing and having a great time. Went to just cruise down to a local place on the water to get a bite to eat. I was traveling at about 20mph. Motor seemed bogged down so I trimmed up a little. Then I lost ALL drive and engine revved up. I cut it down to an idle immediatly. Tried forward and reverse. Nothing. Also noticed the temp climbing up. Shut her down at about 160-180 degrees. Thought maybe I lost the prop. Jumped in and it was still there. Was able to spin it freely. Had friend put boat in drive, with motor off, and was able to spin the prop in both directions, with a small amount of force. That's when I knew I was in trouble. So I flagged someone down and they towed me back to the launch.

Did a little research on this site and decided to poke around. Let me back up and say that my outdrive is NOT an Alpha. It's before that. SOmething like an M/MR. So anyways, I pull the top of the outdrive off. All I see inside are metal shavings and rounded gears. NOT GOOD! So I take a couple of pictures and seal it back up. Now here's where my questions come in:

1. What should I do?? Rebuild or replace the outdrive? Can I ust get new gears?
2. The outdrive was completely serviced. I picked it up May 27th and maybe have 20 hours on it. Should I go back to the mechanic and blame him for the failure and make him fix it?
3. Scrap the boat .

Here's a picture of the carnage!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/TEODE/100_2814.jpg


Any information would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you all for your time.

 

[Don S]

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

2. The outdrive was completely serviced. I picked it up May 27th and maybe have 20 hours on it. Should I go back to the mechanic and blame him for the failure and make him fix it?

As far as I know a "Complete" service on the drive gets your gear lube changed. Maybe pull the drive and grease the splines. Neither of which will destroy the gears.
Had they forgot to fill the drive, you would have gotten an hour at most, not 20 hours
Seals and shafts develop leaks and if the lube oil level is not checked often, then you never know if it's good or bad.
I had an Alpha do that on MY boat. after I changed the gear lube. Sometimes metal fatigue allows gears to break, after one chunk, the rest go easily with the broken chunks getting between the good gears.

Rather you scrap the boat or not is up to you, but your best choice for another drive is to order a new complete SEI outdrive from here at iboats. About 1400 bucks with a 3 year warranty.

 

[Teode]

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

I might be generous on the 20 hrs. I don't have an hour meter so I don't know exactly how much time I put in on it.
I'm just very frusterated right now. Finally got it up and running decent and fixed most of the BIG stuff and now this happens. If I had $1600 to throw at it, I would. Can the outdrive just be rebuilt?

 

[Don S]

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

Can the outdrive just be rebuilt?

Sure, costs about $2500 to $3000 maybe more depending on what all was damaged in your old drive.

 

[Teode]

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

Why would rebuilding the old one cost so much??

 

[Teode]

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O

Are there any other outdrives that would be interchangable with this setup?

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O Outdrive Fried!!

Lack of oil does that stuff, any upper other than a GEN II will bolt up. You need the 1.98 gear ratio .The trouble with a meltdown is that the flattened teeth cut through the upper housing into the water jacket.
SEI upper for around $600 or a complete drive for $1200

 

[Brewman61]

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O Outdrive Fried!!

Look at it from an economic standpoint. You have spent the purchase price, plus possibly a couple thousand more for the work you listed your initial post.
Now you need to spend probably another $1000 give or take. Possibly up to a couple thousand.
Will your $$$ outlay be worth it if this finally gets your boat going?
Or is it better to cut and run?
Is this the last big repair or is there something else waiting for you?

At some point you have to commit one way or the other.

Rebuild costs are high because labor is expensive. That's why it's often cheaper to replace something than to have it rebuilt.

 

[Teode]

Re: 1978 Mercruiser 120 I/O Outdrive Fried!!

Well, at this time, I have about $2500 in the boat. Not bad. And my fun out on the water is definately worth that. But now Im looking at even more money. <sigh> Money that i was going to use to rebuild the motor this winter to get rid of a knock it has. I'm just a little frusterated, ya know?