An extremely interesting read regarding outdrive failure...

[wca_tim]

http://www.jklopman.com/articles/sterndrives2.pdf

I ran across this paper while digging around and thought it was great! Based on another careful look at the upper gearset i "cooked" (burnt the high end merc synthetic lube black, caught it before it turned into many bits of metal), I can say without a doubt it was minor amounts of water intrusion that created the problem.

I won't take your time with a bunch more commentary, if you like digging into the details and so forth, have a read.

Hope everyone's holiday was great!

Cheers! Tim

 

[45Auto]

Re: An extremely interesting read regarding outdrive failure...

Good article, lots of basic background on outdrive failures.

 

[tkrfxr]

Re: An extremely interesting read regarding outdrive failure...

Good article... well illustrated with pictures...

I also noticed how the insurance investigators try to piece the story and the outdrive pieces together to se if fraud is involved...of to deny payment...

 

[45Auto]

Re: An extremely interesting read regarding outdrive failure...

I also noticed how the insurance investigators try to piece the story and the outdrive pieces together to se if fraud is involved...of to deny payment...

Can't say that I blame them. It's an unfortunate statement on our society (maybe part of it's the bad economy and people not having money for their toys) but I see it all the time down here. Somebody's outdrive comes apart and first thing they claim is that they hit something. Not a scratch on the outdrive or prop, the thing is full of water, the bearings are square, it hasn't had the oil changed or alignment checked in years, and they want the insurance company to pay for it. Maybe if people would take a little personal responsibility instead of trying to get someone (or some company) to pay for their ignorance insurance companies could be more reasonable. I would bet that for every claim they deny they probably end up paying 5 or 10 fraudulent claims. If the frauds weren't so prevalent things would work much nicer for the honest people ....

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: An extremely interesting read regarding outdrive failure...

Good article... well illustrated with pictures...

I also noticed how the insurance investigators try to piece the story and the outdrive pieces together to se if fraud is involved...of to deny payment...

If you were LIED TO everyday, you might try to find out the truth. And make no mistake, insurance adjusters are LIED TO, everyday. Not on every claim, but at least once a day.

And I can't tell you how many boat claims I have handled that were "I hit a rock or a log", then I'd go look at the drive, there wouldn't be a mark on it, but the top gears would be wiped out. Sorry, that's lack of lube, not a strike.
I haven't had time to read this linked article, but I'll bet portions of it were included in my boat damage appraisal class that I took several years ago. I know that I have volumes of failure analysis on gears in heavy equipment applications, from a Caterpillar training class I went to about 7 years ago.