Brand New Alpha1 Gen1 Sea Stories?

[ibrw1]

I was told that if you take your new StearnDriveEngineering outdrive and treat it like a 5 year old broke in Mercruiser. Yer gonna regret it.

I read the break in procedure, it honestly will take me all summer to properly break it in. I’m willing, not able.

I will follow it for one tank of gas. Then I’ll try to but is just too much. Anyone know for sure? I mean if I bought a brand new boat, you have a laundry list of dont’s and don’t ?

 

[alldodge]

If your talking about only the out drive then run it like your stole it, but do yearly maintenance likes its your baby

 

[ibrw1]

Thanks, I contacted outdrive guy. He basically said samething. I’m gonna take er easy for 10 hours. Change the oil and hit it and forget it! Yup, change oil every year. So I hear many say drain oil in the fall, do not wait till spring. True? Also outdrive guy says replace inpeller every season. I go every “3” years, looks new. Afraid to go further. I don’t hit the water but 5 or 6 weekends a year. Sound about right. I know it’s subjective. Just wanted yer thoughts. Thanks. Jim

 

[Scott06]

I do gear lube in the fall so I can see if there is any water or metal in it. Thinking being if water is in there no chance to rust bearings and crack if it's drained and fresh, additionally if there is wat in there you have all winter to get it taken care of.

Oem merc impellers last longer than three years in fresh water. I've seen 6-7 and just changed my neighbors original to his boat after ten years, really was in great shape still. Generally I think all depends on use and water your boating in. Keep an eye on top guage when it starts to migrate up a bit change it.

 

[alldodge]

What I do
Change lube in the fall along with checking alignment
Change Impeller every 2 years

You might make it 3 years if your using OEM impeller
The Gen 1 Alpha impeller doesn't last as log and the Gen 2

 

[ibrw1]

Thanks everyone, mine is gen-2. This winter going to rebuild an outdrive and build a 383 4 bolt stroker.
Hoping when I retire, live on Mississippi and do boat repairs. 443 days to go. Lots of beer in my future. I hope.

 

[ibrw1]

So, I installed a new Alpha1-G2 lower outdrive because I was convinced that something was wrong. Excessive metal debris in on the magnet. More then I’m used to seeing. Gritty feeling, not fine mushy powder.
So, I popped the cap off the top of the upper unit. Photographed and scoped it. Looks new.

I ran my brandnew lower drive and changed oil after (2) hours. Samething. I looked at how the oil does not really travel around. Not circulated or pumped. Just sits there. Wasted my money on a new lower unit, I really don’t care. I know that the amount of debris is subjective. Just confused. So just for the heck of it. I’m putting a magnet plug in the top of the unit. Why not? Do the newer outdrives have oil pumps? Filters? Coolers?

I watched several videos on the upper units explaining about shims, backlash and proper torque settings. So I was careful.

 

[alldodge]

There are no filters or pumps in an outdrive. The only ones I know of are the old TR and TRS drives. Most the drives have magnets in upper and lower plugs

 

[ibrw1]

Yeah, i knew mine didnt just wondered about improvements. Pretty sure my Alpha 1 Gen 2 will retain metal in upper half. Small port and no pump, some metal may come out during oil drain. Most importantly, damage in the lower may not pollute the upper. The material or metal captured by the magnet was sharp and gritty. All other drives were like metal dust mixed with oil.

 

[ibrw1]

5.0L 4bbl Alpha-1 Gen-2 Brand New, dumb question about shifting.

Anyone ever install a Brand New outdrive? Both of my new outdrives had MORE and LARGER metal flakes then my old outdrives ever had. My idle is 650 ish.

I installed new outdrive, Ran it like it would explode if I did something wrong. Slow little old lady. The magnet was covered with more than normal, yet small still pieces of metal not powdered metal as with old drives.

Because the outdrive does not have a clutch like in a car and the propeller is not turning, when engaging to forward from neutral the clutch dog engages before gear mesh. I would expect some material to be ground off???????????

So, Shift dogs? Normal?

 

[alldodge]

Normally I would not expect to see that kind of metal on a new drive, maybe others have seen it

 

[ibrw1]

I’m afraid to go to boat Dealers here. I hear quality between Mercruiser and SternDrive is same, true?

 

[ibrw1]

I will take it out over the weekend. I will photograph the debris.

 

[muc]

I’m afraid to go to boat Dealers here. I hear quality between Mercruiser and SternDrive is same, true?

False ——— very very false

 

[ibrw1]

Never got boat back in the water. Awful weather here. Anyway the upper unit is at fault. Absolutely. To recap
Day 1, After seeing lots of metal on magnet I flushed outdrive with new cheap oil. Ran for 15 minutes in driveway
drained oil. Put in green high performance oil. Ran it for about 60 gallons of gas. more metal on magnet. I pop top cap on upper outdrive. Looks ok. I have pictures. I order new lower unit. Install. Run it like little old lady for about an hour. Change oil again. More chunks. I flush it out again. Pump in new HP oil again. Bottom up always, pop cap off upper half. I manually fill it a couple more inches. Put cap back on. (20 foot lbs) run in driveway. 30 minutes, More metal..BUT I DRAINED OUT UPPER first, over filled it. Gray metal filled oil comes out, bottom was green. Top was gray. So I buy spanner wrench. Take both shafts out. Got pictures. Everything looks great. Outdrive makes whining noise.

 

[ibrw1]

Picture is after I installed new lower unit. I topped off oil which is always pumped up from bottom. I added more than it should hold and it proved fruitful. I removed cap top and bottom to drain and that’s when the gray, blue oil drained out of the top blue out of the bottom

 

[alldodge]

You should not be seeing that kind of metal, don't seeing that to continue without damage. The top does look good from the pic

 

[ibrw1]

I have another new outdrive, same exact one ratio and all. So none of this is important. Just curious. I pulled everything apart upper drive. Looks great. I watched YouTube’s. Marked locations. Got rollover torque inch pound wrench for preload.spanner Like that, can’t wait to put it all back together. So Outdrive whined and groaned like wife without credit card. So somethings up. Going out on a limb here. Improper break in. Excessive wear? Get new gears? Follow procedures. Retry?

I will post all pictures tomorrow. Pressing bearings off at machine shop at work tomorrow morning

 

[ibrw1]

[No message]

 

[ibrw1]

Showed bearings, races and gears to Mechanical Engineer and our machinists. They say no issues. So, unless someone has any thoughts, I'm going to reinstall as is following the procedures as required. Once rebuilt, i will idle or so in driveway for 30 minutes then flush. Then new oil in place, I will go to the river and follow procedures as set by drive manufacture. Pull plug and check again.

Been boating since 2010 with my own boats, never ever saw anything more that fine metal powder on the magnet, small amount too. This was way more than that. You could hear growling, above the engine noise