Something to be said for the L Drive

Today I had the opportunity to take a good look a an L-Drive installation in a small Bayliner. I had never paid any attention to L-Drives before; in fact I never even knew they existed before reading this forum.

Most people here comment negatively about the L-Drive; It's orphaned, parts are hard to come by; poorly designed...the list goes on and on.

But really; the concept is quite cool; really....very compact compared to a typical I/O installation. Would it be so bad if someone took a modern 4-stroke outboard and properly designed another drive to mate with it? Seems like there would be good application for it in smaller run-a-bouts...

On the other hand, an L-Drive boat is about the only older two-stroke to get by the 4-stroke police on lakes where carbed twp-strokes are banned....Who would guess that an old-school 2-stroke was under there?

Thanks for reading, Chuck

Re: Something to be said for the L Drive

SeaKaye12 said:

Today I had the opportunity to take a good look a an L-Drive installation in a small Bayliner. I had never paid any attention to L-Drives before; in fact I never even knew they existed before reading this forum.

Most people here comment negatively about the L-Drive; It's orphaned, parts are hard to come by; poorly designed...the list goes on and on.

But really; the concept is quite cool; really....very compact compared to a typical I/O installation. Would it be so bad if someone took a modern 4-stroke outboard and properly designed another drive to mate with it? Seems like there would be good application for it in smaller run-a-bouts...

On the other hand, an L-Drive boat is about the only older two-stroke to get by the 4-stroke police on lakes where carbed twp-strokes are banned....Who would guess that an old-school 2-stroke was under there?

Thanks for reading, Chuck

Click to expand...

The lake cops..see they fog miles away, and they aint stupid..

Re: Something to be said for the L Drive

Sure, the concept was good, but so was the Chrysler Magnapower II ignition. And it has a deservedly poor reputation. It failed so regularly, that the factory soon offered a retrofit kit. It was in the design and execution where they screwed up.

Even though many L drives may function well, knowing the attitude about them, if you were going to buy a boat that you intended to trade up from, would you buy one that the majority of people have a bad opinion about? Would you buy one knowing you would have trouble selling it later? And more importantly, if you had only one boat and you wanted to use it regularly with your family, would you buy one with a rep for breaking down or one with a rep for excellence? --Remember: Even if you do the work yourself, you will miss at least one week of boating.

I buy a LOT of Chrysler and Force engines. I do not buy them to resell them. I know many people have a negative opinion of them. So, I get them cheap. If they are not cheap, I walk away. I fix 'em up and keep 'em in my garage. If someone comes around wanting to repower, I'll sell one but I ain't looking actively to get rid of engines. That's the difference--Many people who buy L Drives are not aware of what they are actually getting.

And as for mating a modern 4 stroke outboard block to a drive--Why re-invent the wheel? With modern auto engines getting so light and powerful modified marine versions are almost competitive with 2 strokes.

Re: Something to be said for the L Drive

I 'missed out' on buying a boat with an L-drive last spring. I saw a Capri advertised with a 120hp L-drive. I thought the whole set-up sounded like a good deal but I called too late and it was sold.
I had no idea what the L-drives were. In retrospect I laugh about it to myself and count myself lucky. The Capri/Force 90hp combo that I bought about a month later performed flawlessly for me all summer...through over 30 outings. I have no complaints about the Force stuff myself at this point. I am hoping to keep my 90hp outboard in good running shape so the fun continues.
As a matter of fact I picked up a spare 90 to putz with over the winter and learn a bit about (although I haven't done much with it lately).
Regardless, on the L-drives with I what I now know from this forum I would never buy one...unless it was running well and about a thousand bucks.
However for those that have 'em...this is the place to be.