Seized outdrive

jgerardi

Seaman
Joined
Feb 27, 2019
Messages
61
This has been a nightmare. I have been fixing everything mechanical and electronic for the last 30 years of my life and this whole engine issue just wont give me a break. I replaced the lower seals in my outdrive, put it all back together and mounted it on the boat. I filled it with oil and took it out for a run. The boat with the new motor ran amazingly for 10 minutes. Then the boat went in to limp mode. I headed back to shore at no wake speed and the boat shut off. I found that it had overheated. While i was waiting for seatow, i found the problem. I never tightened the clamp on the neutra-salt system so the boat could not suck up any seawater for cooling. I ran it in my driveway for quite a bit but the motor has a hose connection for flushing so i never picked up on it. I must have knocked the hose off the neutra-salt system at some point and that was the culprit.
Moving forward i continued with my test run. again, the boat was running amazingly.....Then it just stopped. The damn thing was locked solid. Called seatow once again. Got the boat home and concluded that the outdrive was either seized or the new gimbal bearing had seized. I took the dipstick out of the top of the drive and could smell it was burnt. It was dry. Nothing was showing on the dipstick. Where did the 2.7 qts of oil i put in 4 hours earlier go?
The next morning i tool the drive off the boat and opened the drain. About 2 qts came out. I split the drive open (top and bottom) and found the top was in fact seized but the bottom moved freely. I took the shift mechanism off the top of the drive and it was loaded with shavings and metal splinters. I took the lower section apart and it appears to be perfectly fine. The gears look good and although there were some VERY fine metal shavings, nothing looked damaged.
I have concluded that i didnt have enough oil in the drive. I cant for the life of me come up with another sensible reason for this. When filling the drive i had to remove the hose for the pump at the drain the put the plug back in. I lost a bit of oil but i didnt think too much. When i checked the level on the dipstik it was low. I added some to bring it back to full but im thinking i didnt get enough in. The only way to add oil is via the dipstick. Im thinking there was air that made it look full when it wasnt.
Now, since i have a DPS-a with stainless props. I have yet another problem. Since a new DPS-a can not be purchased, my only option was to get a DPS-b . That means new hubs for both sets of props and all total with pressing the hubs into the props, i was looking at about $9000.
Option 2 is to buy just the top section of the drive for 3800 and use my old bottom half. I chose the latter not so much because of the difference in price but also because doing this would be a much faster solution. I can still get the bottom half and add that if necessary.
So far this season i have invested (including this latest mess) approximately $11,000 and have yet to have a day on the water. No one in their right mind could honestly say they dont care about the money but im so numb with all of this i just want to get back in the water.

Anyone have any thoughts on this (other than to sell it and take up golf)?
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
47,297
Did you do a pressure and vacuum test per the manual?

Did you verify if the issue is in the upper or the lower?
 

jgerardi

Seaman
Joined
Feb 27, 2019
Messages
61
I did do the pressure and vacuum test. The pressure held for hours, the vacuum was less than perfect but in order to lose that much oil in a matter of 15-20 minutes, there would have to be a major leak. When i say the vacuum was lest than perfect, i lost about 1 inch of vacuum in about 2 minutes as opposed to 3. Once it got down to 9 inches or so, it held fine.

Even when i got back after it was seized, it held 15lbs with no problem. When i first pulled the dipstick there was no oil showing on it which was why i thought i lost all my oil, but based on the size of the area at the top of the drive where the gears are, it wouldnt take much for the oil level to be low enough to not show on the stick and also not provide any lubrication.

As i said, i am convinced that even though i filled the drive until there was oil coming from the side vent hole, when i removed the fitting at the drain where i pumped it in, I must have lost more than i thought. Either that or maybe there was a pocket of air. There is no other explanation for it.

I had an old yamaha sterndrive that had an oil pump in it. So even if the oil ran low, the pump would still get oil to the top section. All this sterndrive does is splash the oil that the gears are sitting in around. Sort of like a lawn mower engine does.

Either way, i cant think of anything else that would have caused this.

As i said, if anyone else has an idea...please throw it out there.

JG
 

BRICH1260

Lieutenant
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Messages
1,342
You might pull the drive and make sure the oil did not go into the bellows via a bad input seal. If you decide to replace the drive, look on ebay. you can usually find used as well as rebuilt drives on there for a lot less than buying new.
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
47,297
Your drive would have taken just shy of 3 quarts
 
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