How can I fix the water leaking at the stern for my boat?

[liusigou]

The water is becoming more and more when my boat is in water. and I had a testing with pouring water into my boat and found the stern is leaking( seen in attached viedo). My boat is Mercruiser 2.5 in out. How can I fix the leaking? Thank you so much

 

[alldodge]

How can I fix the leaking?

Remove the motor, drive and transom assembly then replace the transom

 

[JASinIL2006]

First of all, it's not really a good idea to fill your boat with water... there are too many things that can get damaged by being soaked, and often you can't get enough water in the boat to find the problems without drowning parts of the engine.

In your case, it does look like water is leaking past the seal between the gimbal housing and the transom. That often means the transom has become soft from rot. If that is the case, a rebuild is in your future. You can drill some holes (from the inside) into the wood transom core to see what the shavings look like. Use a 1/4" drill bit and make sure to not drill any deeper than 1.5 inches or so, or you might penetrate the outer skin of the hull. If the shavings are wet and/or dark, you have a bad transom.

 

[liusigou]

Should I apply marine silicon around gimbal housing? It is easy to apply it outside around gimbal housing. But it is difficult to apply it in side.

 

[alldodge]

Should I apply marine silicon around gimbal housing? It is easy to apply it outside around gimbal housing. But it is difficult to apply it in side.

No
If the transom seal is bad, silly cone will not fix it.
If the transom is rotton, silly cone will not fix it.

 

[JASinIL2006]

I agree that a silicone patch is a bad idea. Aside from your transom possibly being rotten and unsafe, there is a decent chance that other parts of the boat's structure, like stringers, bulkheads and motor mounts, are also not sound. A leak like that is really a sign that you need to do some extensive investigation. Otherwise, you could be operating a very unsafe boat.

 

[liusigou]

I have a auto bigle pump. It can drain water at any time.

 

[alldodge]

Good luck and have life jackets

 

[tpenfield]

How can you fix it?

1) find out why it is leaking

2) correct the issue

It could be the transom assembly seal . . . or it could be the transom itself . . . or it could be the transom assembly is leaking (somewhere . . . )

 

[Bt Doctur]

There is no "easy button" but there is a death certificate with drowning listed as the cause.
Post your next of kin ,please

 

[Scott Danforth]

your boat has a 2.5 liter which puts the boat 1990 or older. fiberglass boats older than 15 years are on borrowed time.

your boat is leaking because the transom and stringers are most likely rotten. this is the same as you having a broken back, broken arms and broken legs and expected to pick up 100# and go running.

there is no easy fix. the motor needs to come out and the amount of damage and rot needs to be inspected and then a plan to correct the issue needs to be made.

failure to fix the issue will find the boat sinking fast, hopefully everyone has their life jackets on.

 

[liusigou]

Thank you everyone. First of all I will take the easiest way of applying silicon around the gimbal house outside the boat to try to fix it. If it can not work, I will take further

 

[Scott Danforth]

Silicone is a false sense of security

 

[Rick Stephens]

Without doing testing you are being the three monkeys here: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. With that attitude you should buy a little red wagon and give up on boating.

 

[Grub54891]

Having seen many boats at the marina that I work at, ones that come in with the silicone on the gimble housing as a seal, it won't last long. They start leaking again and the owners want a quick fix. There is no quick fix. Once the transom wood gets wet it will never dry out. Just keeps rotting away. Seen a couple that cracked badly, lucky no one got hurt or worse. One was a boat a guy just bought without a survey. Big loss of money on that one.

 

[nola mike]

This guy came on looking for reassurance about a quick fix, found that facts didn't fit what he wanted to hear, and is now going to do a completely half assed fix, ignoring that his boat may be unsafe (but at least he has an auto bilge pump). Op, hope you have your guests sign a waiver before you take them on board.

 

[isaacs]

Is there any chance this guy just has a bad bellows?

 

[Bt Doctur]

a bellows leak lets water into the boat from the bellows , a transom leak is something very different, there is an inner and outer housing bolted together with a gasket to form a seal.

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Follow the advice here and really look into the root cause of the leak. Putting silicon on the transom of a boat to hide a problem is not a good idea. That’s not a fix. It would be like putting duct tape on torn bellows.