Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

[lmannyr]

Removed drive, vacuum/pressure checked. Vacuum leaked. Split the drive and upper has vacuum leak after covering holes. Replaced lower oil seal. Removed u joint assembly and THE BEARING DON'T TURN SMOOTH IN MY HANDS. Removed upper drive shaft, and the portion exposed to the water due to the bad seal, is rusty, rough, pitted and don't thing it will have a good seal if I don't replace it.

Does anyone have any pointers to changing the said bad parts?

thanks

 

[Don S]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

IF the bearings are rough, all you can do is replace them.
One pointer. Bearings used by Mercruiser are Timken (in most cases) just get the numbers off the race and the bearing and get them from your local Timken bearing company. Heck of a lot cheaper. Use a Merc seal kit. Better stuff, that actually fits. Follow the service manual, and yes, you need the special tools to check and re-set gear heights after bearing replacement.

 

[lmannyr]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

Don,

Another question:

I noticed the manual said to remove shims after removing the u joint assembly. There were none in my drive. Is this normal? Does that mean I won't need em?

And thanks!

 

[Don S]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

I noticed the manual said to remove shims after removing the u joint assembly. There were none in my drive. Is this normal? Does that mean I won't need em?

No, it's not normal. There is always at least one. Unless someone along the line forgot to reinstall them.
After replacing bearings you ALWAYS have to check gear heights and positions.
Look at each gear tooth, especially the pinion gear. They should not have any holes in the hard facing on the contact surface, and they should look fairly smooth and shiny.

 

[lmannyr]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

I'm not sure if the pinion gear is the same as the driven gear but my driven gear has elongated pits stretching halfway up. Manual #6 Page 3A-10 item # 9 is what is pitted. I noticed these only come as a set, and are not cheap.

Without taking apart the u joint assembly, the bearing race numbers are from Timken # 382A, REALLY CHEAP online!! Thanks for that tip.

 

[Don S]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

Can you post a CLEAR picture of good quality of the defects in the gear.
Just post the link to the picture, not a huge picture on the fourm. A simple click an it can be opened.

 

[lmannyr]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

Here you go.... Nice and big..

Pic 1

Pic 2

 

[ziggy]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

might be time to think about a sei drive.
i did a one drive brg.s and yoke only, after it was said and done i was mighty close to a sei upper price wise parts and tools vs the sei.... and that was brgs only i did... and that was borrowing the shimming tools too... not buying them.
i wonder wear the pieces of the gears went? throughout the drive along with the lub i'd assume?

 

[Don S]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

Your gears are junk. Like ziggy mentioned, time to look at the lower, it has to be just as bad. You were real close to complete gear failure, upper and lower.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

Your gears are junk.

Ayuh,... The 1 in pic. #2 is,... Pic. #1 is the wrong side of the gear,....

 

[lmannyr]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

Pic. #1 is the wrong side of the gear

That was to show the damage from a bad lower seal.

Here is drive shaft gear pic.

 

[JustJason]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

tough to tell from here but from the pic that gear itself doesn't look bad. What concernes me is those metal shavings. the shaving are probably all in the bearings as well. Also seems to be some blueing on the race closest to the gear. But that's all I can see from my house.
either way.... if you have 1 good gear and 1 bad gear, they really need to be replaced as a set. I know sierra sells them individually but Merc sells them as a matched set, and that's how they should be replaced.

 

[lmannyr]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

The drive is up for sale on Ebay now...Selling it will offset the cost of a SEI replacement. How much will it offset the cost....depends how much it will sell for..

The cost of the gears was about 300 bucks. The Retainer Nut tool cost me 40 bucks. The new bearings, i don't know, 50 bucks or so? The shim set 20 bucks. Shim tools another 150 bucks. Oil 20 bucks. And replacing ujoints (couple rust spots, Minor) only because I'm anal, 40 bucks. thats about 600 bucks. Another 500 hundred I have 3 year warenty and a NEW drive. All I have to do is install it and maybe add oil and change during break in period. It's piece of mind. Thanks for the help and tips.

Manny..

 

[Fishermark]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

Another 500 hundred I have 3 year warenty and a NEW drive.

Good choice!

 

[lmannyr]

Re: Milky Oil Getting Deeper.

Ok, SEI Drive came in yesterday in 2 boxes well packaged. Each box had half of the drive. There was no damage to the outside of the boxes. took pictures of every step opening the boxes up. I wanted to make sure if anything was a miss, I had documentation.

As expected, there were 2 paint chips in the lower unit. I have read many posts saying the paint on these drives aren't the best and holds true. Other than the 2 small (2/16") chips, the pain looks NICE!.

I also bought the SEI install kit which includes all the hardware (except 6 washers to install the drive on bell housing), gaskets, o-rings for yoke and water hole. Shift shaft was prelubed, I had to lube everything else.

Yesterday the two halfs went together after lubing according to the Merc manual. Today, bell housing got a cleaning, lubed according the manual, new gasket installed, new o-rings installed, and in the drive went.

We installed the old washers with new nylon locking nuts (supplied by SEI install kit). I rebuilt the starboard trim ram when the old drive came off. Attached the rams & hardware. Dropped the drive as low as it would go. Filled with Quicksilver Gear oil (until oil started to come out of vent hole). Rebuilt ram bled, Trim oil topped off.

Tomorrow, we'll finish up by connecting the new trim sensor wires in the engine bay, adjusting the sensors, and start the engine. The engine has been started in a bit over 2 months. I'm anxious to hear this sucker hum again.

We plan to go out on saturday. We miss being on the water. I'll keep you all posted.