Alpha letting in water

Hey guys!
My '81 Alpha is trading water and oil everywhere. I've found oil and sand all over down around the impeller and signs of water mixed up in the oil. My very first thought is the most simple. Maybe the little o-ring between the top and bottom went bad... still possible
But when I opened the two halves up, I found a rubber ring with a spring on it and the reamains of a chewed up water tube seal. Whats this thing w/ the spring?

I bought an upper seal kit from iboats.com, but Im not totally sure where all these seals go. Any help? A close up detailed diagram would be great.

I should probably also add that I noticed a little oil coming out around the inlets for the water impeller.... Related issue?

Re: Alpha letting in water

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Re: Alpha letting in water

not too much help other than you can download the manual from the top , adults only. if you are getting that much in, I doubt its form the quad seal between the upper and lower, probably a lower output shaft seal, but I would pressure test the drive to find out. Just my 0.02

Re: Alpha letting in water

Not sure........but that looks like the seal at the bottom of the lower waterpump housing.

Re: Alpha letting in water

Well, im still not sure where this "spring ring" came from. perhaps the world may never know. what I have found out is that my lower unit is JUNK. The splines on the upper shaft are all chewed up. I found a crack running nearly the full length of the prop shaft housing, the part of the housing directly under the impeller is so corroded that it wont seal (source of my oilly water), and the drain tube at the front of the housing is packed with sand.... so if anyone needs a fairly useless Alpha 1 let me know. The prop shaft is still good....

Re: Alpha letting in water

Not that it matters any longer...however I found the identical "spring ring" when I pulled mine apart also. I believe it is part of the upper spline shaft seal...as mine was still around the shaft above the O-ring when I disassembled it.

Re: Alpha letting in water

i'm thinking you're correct. -and it does still matter, as I haven't put mine back together yet. It seems like it kind of snugs up inside the shaft housing....

Re: Alpha letting in water

I beleive this is one of the problems the oring groove caused. The broken peice of oring gets jammed up in there destroying the shaft seal. On newer units the groove is not there. Either way, you will need to build a pressure test setup. 15lbs should do it.

Re: Alpha letting in water

I beleive this is one of the problems the oring groove caused. The broken peice of oring gets jammed up in there destroying the shaft seal.

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or the o ring just plain comes out of it's groove displacing the seal during reassembly. ya don't even know it happens till it's to late. when i would reassemble mine, putting upper and lower together, that darn o ring would always be behind the lip of the seal after separating the halves to try again at reassembly. i still have the groove in my drive shaft, but havn't used the o ring in several years now w/o ramification.

imho, the seal in question. installed.
fwiw. if ya got a grove on the drive shaft due to this seal, this seal can be installed slightly off depth wise, thus gaining a new surface to the seal to ride on.