'89 Citation 18ft open bow few questions.

[dabombman4u20062]

I just purchased this boat 2 days ago. well basically STOLE it paid $900. 4.3 OMC runs very strong and tops out at bout 40-45MPH. took it out for first time yesterday, and was taking on a bit of water. The seller did tell me about this and said his mechanic said it was prob from the O-ring in the exhaust.....it takes on to much water to be this i believe, not to mention the exhaust comes out of the prop thus would need lot of pressure to force water up into engine bay and leak as quick as it is. The bilge keeps up just fine however would rather not take on water. does anyone have any idea what could be? im going to caulk around the outdrive to see if that helps but i dont see any holes or major gaps around it. any input would help! also have to manually bump the shift linkage to get Reverse to engage.....lower shift cable? or does linkage just need adjusted? any input would help!


JErod

 

[sYnOnYx]

Re: '89 Citation 18ft open bow few questions.

I would put it back in the water tied to a dock then try to find the leak. It could be something very simple, or something bigger. I would stay away from using caulk on the boat. If your seals are done properly there is no need for home caulk.

I would be asking yourself:

Does it only leak when the motor is running ?

Does it leak when it is sitting in the water not running ?

If it only leaks when the motor is on, I would say you have a leak somewhere in your cooling system.

 

[dabombman4u20062]

Re: '89 Citation 18ft open bow few questions.

upon further review it appears that the exhaust bellow has holes on the bottom of it (obviously a problem) and it appears that the shift cable bellow is non-existant (again an obivious proplem) now my question is what all does replacing these involve? do i have to remove the outdrive? is it something i could do in a few hour or something i should just pay out the wazoo in labor at local shop?

 

[dabombman4u20062]

Re: '89 Citation 18ft open bow few questions.

also it only leaks while the boat is tied up or beached. also looking at the exhaust bellows the holes almost look asif they are manufactured to be there as they run the lenght of the bellow.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: '89 Citation 18ft open bow few questions.

those exh bellows holes are normal

shift cable bellows is your source most likely

get a manual, read it and decide if you want to do it yourself. It's not a bad job.
You want to replace the shift cable while you're doing it and google up the stuart cobra site about the shift cable on cobras.. another reason you probably want to do it yourself... too risky if not adjusted right

 

[dabombman4u20062]

Re: '89 Citation 18ft open bow few questions.

i have read about the shift adjustment, seems touchy. Bad part is......it needs to be adjusted i believe to allow it to pull the linkage fully to place drive in reverse......still all in all i think i came out of this like a bandit!

 

[Don S]

Re: '89 Citation 18ft open bow few questions.

There is no shift cable bellows on cobra drives. Those are only on Mercruiser drives.
The slits in the exhaust bellows are normal. The exhaust always has water in it when in the water.
You first have to figure out where the water is coming in, then we can tell you how to fix it.

 

[dabombman4u20062]

Re: '89 Citation 18ft open bow few questions.

thats the hard part figuring out where its coming in. i can hear it come in when im on the river but can not actually SEE it coming in. im going out tomorrow and going to try to look again and contort myself into a pretzel to get look behind engine for clues. so your saying its normal for an OMC to have an open hole like the one shown in pic? (not the exhaust bellows) but the other pic?