How long can my upper unit whine before....?

[trog100]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

your opinon is based on recent experience lakelivin.. some opinons are more valid than others.. yours must be considered among the valid ones.. your comment about decent mechanics thow is interesting.. one mechanic wrecks your drive another one tells u it needs fixing now else it will cost a lot more.. its hard for most folks to be sure they have a decent mechanic or even good advice.. or at least one that dosnt replace everything that might be in the same box.. that way they never have a problem come back..their reputation is good.. they make more money and the customer pays the bill however large..<br /><br />i recon we have to take the possibility of dodgy (replace every thing in sight just in case) mechanics into the equation when we weight it all up.. there is lot of variables and luck involved.. both in how much damage was caused to the drive and in how much it would cost to be fixed..<br /><br />i just helped rebuilt an old BMW drive that had been run without any oil in it at all.. the owner (my youngest son) unknowingly ran it for a fornight then it jammed in reverse gear and wouldnt come out.. he had just bought the boat it had bad oil seals and the oil just ran straight out pretty much as quick as it was poured in.. so the guy who sold him it just sold it on with no oil in the drive at all.. my son knowing nothing about outdrives bought the thing..<br /><br />when it was stripped down the gears and bearings were undamaged.. (amazingly).. it had stuck in gear cos its a cone clutch drive and running dry caused the cones to jam in and not to come out.. it was resealed put back together and now runs perfectly..<br /><br />i can remember reading your thread about your drive and it not being filled correctly and thinking at the time that u were unlucky that so much damage had been done in so short a time.. my son was very lucky his drive survived its lack of oil experience.. i think in your case luck went the other way.. praps both cases were outside the norm and wouldnt be that easy to repeat.. who knows..<br /><br />trog100

 

[steve n carol]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

LakeLivin, I remember that! What a pain in the but. Besides the inconvience, which is time, which = $$. You came through the trouble. How's that house at the lake commin along? Right now, it's a great time of the year down there! at least until June. keep on!!!sl

 

[lakelivin]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

Trog:<br />I'm very comfortable with the mechanic who did the diagnosis after the problem. He's about an hour and a half away from me, was recommended a couple of years ago by the closest OMC certified shop (who didn't want to touch a Cobra, lol). I had used him in the past; when they serviced the drive they checked the bearings, etc. (all in good condition) instead of just pumping in some grease. <br /><br />In this case, even though I took the boat back for the 'original shop' to repair (after the 'good shop' had diagnosed the damage) he didn't charge me anything, not even a shop charge. And there was no doubt about the damage, the gears were really torn up. He even wrote a notarized letter on my behalf with his assessment of the damage & cause that was very helpful in court (again, nothing in it for him, as a matter of fact, he lost a major repair job). He even noted that in the past one of his guys had misfilled a Cobra, and the shop picked up the full cost to repair the subsequent damage. Great to know there is a repair shop I trust, shame that it's so far away...<br /><br />Steve:<br />Thanks for the positive thoughts!<br /><br />You're right, what a pain in the a** that was/ is. Still haven't received the money I was awarded in court (although it's on the way). The shop decided they wanted to pay me $50 a month to settle the $850 debt (not a cash flow problem for them, just being petty). As a courtesy (you may remember, they're kind of neighbors) I twice called the co-owner who handles the books (the wife) to let her know what the process was if they didn't pay in full: I could proceed with collection through the Sheriffs Dept. and the shop would end up paying the extra administrative fees. <br /><br />I guess she didn't believe me, said they were going to proceed as planned, so I filed the paperwork. A little while later one of the sheriffs called me to let me know he had collected the money. I'm not sure if they voluntarily gave him a check or if came out of the cash register (he made it a point to go out at the end of the day in case that was necessary), but I'm pretty sure it ended up costing the shop an extra $125-$150 on top of what they owed me. Haven't received it yet, guess it takes a little while to work it's way from the sheriffs dept., through the clerk of court, to whatever dept. actually makes out the check, but expecting it any day. <br /><br />80% of me is frustrated that they wasted the extra money (I don't get any of it, and as I said, they're neighbors). On the other hand, gotta admit there's a small part of me that finds it a little satisfying that they were penalized since I tried to help them avoid it (solely on their behalf, nothing in it for me; I knew I was gonna get my $ one way or the other) and they ignored my efforts. Saw them out on the lake the other day with some common friends; the husband waved back, the wife seemed like if you tapped her with a hammer she would have shattered like an ice statue. This may be politically incorrect to say, but my experience is that emotion totally overwhelms rationality much more often in women than men. <br /><br />On top of that, the rebuilt upper they put in needed a new water pump after less than 20 hours. Heard a whining sound one day coming from that part of the upper, pulled the pump, saw that the housing insert was warped (and basically 'glued' to the housing) and starting to chew up the impeller. Fortunately, because of what I've learned on this forum, I was able to easily replace it for about $40. <br /><br />But you're right, spring is here, everything is blooming, great time of year in NC!

 

[crazy charlie]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

Slow Boy,try to use synthetic gear lube until you decide to do the work.Charlie

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

the slight whine was not because the oil was low,it was because something was damaged by low oil.<br /><br />Low oil does not whine.Mechanical damage does.<br /><br />DHP

 

[RubberFrog]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

It's like a wife... you never know how long she's gonna whine before she blows....

 

[Bondo]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

Interesting Thread.................<br /><br />I've got $1000.00 that says It'll Never see the End of the Season.................<br /><br />He11,...... I've got $500.00 that says It'll Never see the 4th of July..............

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

Halleujah!

 

[SeattleMatt]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

LOL, u guys are mean. I have the boat out of the water now. The outdrive is in my shop and I will begin disassembly this evening. I will let you know how it goes. Thank you for all your input!

 

[lakelivin]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

Thanks, I'd love to know what you find as far as the cause of the noise.

 

[SeattleMatt]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

We pulled the cap end bearing and found scoring in the race and on the rollers. The bearing is definately shot. At this point the question lies in whether or not to rebuild every bearing in the upper and lower unit.<br /><br />Also, the oil seal leak seems to be coming from the seal on the driveshaft at the bottom of the water pump. Unfortunately the shaft is worn and we may have to put it on the lathe to smooth it out before replacing the seal as it would probly not last long I assume.<br /><br />I am in favor of just replacing this bearing, putting it back together and keeping an eye on the rest, but I may be overruled by my partners

 

[Bondo]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

Well Matt,......... Here's Another way to look at it..........<br /><br />The Material Missing from the bearings,+ shaft has Gone Somewhere..........<br />That Somewhere is All Through Your Outdrive........<br /><br />The Very Least I would do is a Complete Teardown, Inspection,+ Reseal................<br /><br />If you Don't do it Now,....... You'll be doing it Later,... Maybe Peak Season, when the kids want to be Boating,....<br />Or You want to be Fishing.....<br /><br />BTW,....... I've never seen a repolished shaft hold a seal either........ <br /><br />Good Luck...

 

[SeattleMatt]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

hmm, okay. I am apprehensive about taking apart the drive because of all this talk of shims. If we tear the drive down completely, inspect it, and put it back together do i need to adjust the shims? Also, what if i replace all the bearings? would I have to reshim?

 

[Bondo]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

An Outdrive is a very Intricate, Precision piece of Machinery...........<br /><br />Just How Precisely you follow the rebuild Sequence will determine whether you have a Strong Outdrive,........<br />Or,... A 1 Day Wonder............<br /><br />I'm a Mechanic,... I'm Comfortable, Armpit Deep in a Caterpillar Engine....... Or, Knee Deep in a SBC..........<br />I send My broken drives up to My Buddy, Dave..... He's been building Merc.s since I started turning wrenches..... <br />He Knows what he's doing...... I'll Gladly Pay for his services(Cheap,BTW).........<br /><br />'Cause Most of My drive Problems come from Contact with Real Estate......<br />Never from Other Issues,... If Dave says it's Good to Go,..... I Know I'm All Set.......<br /><br />You either Need a Factory Mercruiser Manual,........ Or, A Buddy like Dave...........

 

[SeattleMatt]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

we have the Seloc manual<br />we have a complete machine shop<br />I've done lots of work on cars, and we've put a new engine in this boat. we've already fabricated a tool for removing the yoke, but i really want to know if i can take it apart and put it back together without reshimming. I don't have experience with transmissions yet.

 

[Bondo]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

OK,...........2 short answers,.........<br /><br />No,... You'll need to Measure for Shims,+ add when necessary........<br /><br />No,...... You Don't have a Manual............<br /><br />Get a Mercruiser Manual...........<br />Do a Search here at iboats..... Don has posted a link to a pdf manual Many Times........<br /><br />I'm Sure you can Learn how to do it,.... <br />But Remember,..... It Takes the Right Knowledge,... And Tools to do the job Right........<br /><br />This Just Might be a Relatively inexpensive way to Learn Transmissions...........

 

[SeattleMatt]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

okay I will look for the manual, and go from there. As it turns out I am getting a lower unit from a 120/140 that looks to be in much better condition than ours. So I will only be concerned with the upper.

 

[SeattleMatt]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

Thanks for all your help!!

 

[vipzach]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

This is the link that bondo was referring to, alot of info there, hope it helps.<br /> http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Servmanl/srvcovr.pdf

 

[SeattleMatt]

Re: How long can my upper unit whine before....?

yeah, it's like the first 3 pages of each. Is there something missing here?