Thought I'd share my ongoing experience with Sterdrive Engineering Inc. so far: I bought a new SEI 116 model(alpha 1 Gen 2) complete drive to replace my 20 year old standard rotation Mercruiser unit. Since I now keep my 1992 Tiara 270 Sportboat in Rhode Island (3:20 hr drive away) I decided to have a local RI mechanic do the work. I had always done my own minor work in the past. After the break-in procedure was completed in may 2013, I was able to enjoy boating for a couple of months until the unit locked up. I used the same mechanic to do the work and return the drive under warranty. $1000.00 (obscene fee to transport the boat to their shop and labor, shipping, etc.) and three weeks later I'm back on the water. Toward the end of the season this year (2014) it developed a vibration and noise. This time I removed the drive myself, as I always have in the past before trusting this mechanic to do it. The upper drive seal and bearing appeared to be the issue to me because the upper gear assembly didn't want to turn over after separating the upper and lower halves, as well as the shaft bellows being full of lube, the lower turned over and shifted fine. I shipped the complete unit to SEI per their instructions under the warranty return procedure. They rebuilt both and sent a report to me with the unit. Their report stated that the lower unit had gear failure, the drive shaft was out of alignment because I "may have struck something" but nothing was wrong with the upper. This was completely opposite of what I had observed. I called to talk to the person that handled the warranty transaction at SEI. He informed me that there was no "failure" with the unit either time, just a clutch problem the first time and a gear problem the second time and that the warranty period for this drive will expire at the end of three years from the date of original purchase. I guess one person's "failure" is another's "problem". I'm sure there must be a legal reason that "failure" is not spoken of at SEI.
So I guess as experience seems to indicate, next year's "problem" will be the last one they cover under warranty. I replaced the other unit on the boat with a counter rotating Mercruiser last winter (2013) with no "problems" so far.
So I guess as experience seems to indicate, next year's "problem" will be the last one they cover under warranty. I replaced the other unit on the boat with a counter rotating Mercruiser last winter (2013) with no "problems" so far.