1986 crestliner sabre 22.5 transom repair

i have a crestliner sabre g/l 22.5 cc aluminum boat and the transom board is rotted and leaking badly. is this something i can do myself? i am a master certified automotive technician. it has a 4.3 chevy v-6 engine and a cobra outdrive. my real question is do i need any special tools to line everything back up or do i need to go pay 1500 dollars and have a boat repair center do it for me? please help with any input on this. thank you glen johnson

Re: 1986 crestliner sabre 22.5 transom repair

Hi GasRod, I just ran across your post and I am working on replacing the transom board on my 85 Crestliner 16. While mine is an outboard vs your I/O, I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't that different.

I just reverse engineered mine as to how it was assembled and then started to take it apart. Remember, how they assembled it doesn't mean that is how you need to re-assemble it. I did pull my outboard to be able to remove the board, I don't know if you can get to it with your v-6 still in place or if you need to pull it as well.

With your mechanical skills I think you will find you can dig into this.

Re: 1986 crestliner sabre 22.5 transom repair

Pull the outdrive, pull the motor (or at least undo the motor mount bolts/lags/screws)

You need an alignment bar (specific to your motor/outdrive assembly) to ensure the motor & outdrive splines are correctly aligned. Else premature friction & wear (leads to failure) can occur. Since you're a MC auto tech, it's sort of like ensuring the pinion & ring gear mesh properly.

You might get lucky & find someone here that has 1 you can borrow for the cost of shipping, iboats may carry it, or find it on ebay/online.

You'll likely want to buy 1, you'll need it every time you pull the outdrive, like when you need to replace the bellows...

A similar thread:
90 cobra 4.3l drive question

Surf thru a few threads in that OMC I/O forum. You'll probably find lots of helpful info