Leaky after service

[noclutch]

Re: Leaky after service

Aerobat- I picked the boat up at the Marina and went for a days outing from there. During that day it barely took on a noticeable amount of water- didn't see it till I'd trailered home and was cleaning it. I chalked it up to maybe they'd rinsed the bilge after changing oil even though I'm sure they pumped it- drippage? About 6 weeks passed before I got her out on the water again, during which time it on the aforementioned gallon of water or so, when I knew I had a leak. I've talked to the shop about it and of course they'd aren't admitting that it is something that they did incorrectly that is causing the leak, but I'm hoping that during the discovery process they will see that it is indeed related to their inattentive reassembly. Unfortunately, the marina is about 1.5 hours away and one of the few VP dealers in my area and Merc seems to have 90% of the market, so logistics is a big part of the problem in getting it addressed quickly. Ugh. And the forcast is for rain and/or work till mid next week! Ugh some more.

 

[aerobat]

Re: Leaky after service

ah ok.

like everybody says- just pull the drive and look whats wrong. before pulling it you may loook if all 6 bolts are really tighened- not that its something really really simple.

pulling a sx is easy , i did it also first time this spring. when it was pulled shortly ago you should also have no problems to get it off.

a rotten transom can be excluded when all was fine before, and i would say its even unprobable your bellow is now bad when it was ok before.

i guess they forgot to clean and grease the area where the nose of the drive goes into the bellow and so its not perfectly tight. i learned on my own rive that this is the only watertight sealing for the shaft- was also suprized that the sx does not have any gasket between the drive and the bellhousing.

in any case you surely have a minor problem which can be fixed quickly, but with water in the bellows you will quickly ruin your gimbal bearing and u-joint when you do not act.

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Leaky after service

I'd guess it weighs in the neighborhood of 100lb, maybe a little more. It's not so much the weight that is troube, but the awkwardness. It is very top heavy. I've pulled and reinstalled mine twice on my own with no stand. Getting it off is easy...sliding it back on while sliding the shaft into the coupler might take a few tries and will be easier with a second person.

You can grab an alignment tool off of Amazon for about $30:
Alignment Tool
The Merc alignment tool works on the SX drives too.

If the bellow needs changed, it can be done with just the drive off. You'll just remove the exhaust bellows and disconnect the water hose to gain access to the u-joint bellows. I've done it twice...that way, and also disassembled the gimbal ring to get more room to work. It is easier to just leave the transom assembly assembled and deal with the tight space.

If you have the OEM service manual, it has details on replacing the bellows. If not, head over here, go to the manuals section, then Volvo Penta, and scroll over to find the SX-A manual. It's got everything you could want to know.

 

[noclutch]

Re: Leaky after service

Thanks aero- yea I was guessing it was an re-assembly problem with the drive sealing. The boat is garaged when not on the water, which has only been about 150 hours in the last 5 years...so a "rotten" transom problem wasn't really on my radar either but maybe there is a seal that has gone bad between the transom plate and transom?. The timing of the leak is awfully suspicious, and of course the shop is being a bit defensive about it all.

Should I run it around for an hour or so on the water before they pull the drive in order to freshen the leak evidence? It will have been in the garage, with a dried out bilge, for a week and a half before I can get it back to them. But I'd guess the bellows would retain water well though as it is made of corrugated rubber.

Thanks Sky- I'm definitely thinking that next year I'll tackle it myself, but since the shop should feel some culpability, I'll just let them address it this time. I really do like to do my own maintenance on my stuff. but also hate to booger things up and have to get bailed out by a professional! But the hassle of logistics as well as expense are definitely pushing me to be more self reliant.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Re: Leaky after service

I'm no mechanic either, but pulling a drive is really quite easy. Lots of videos on Youtube show the process; achris has several, although they deal with the Mercruiser Alpha One. This is not a procedure that should cause apprehension. After you do it once, you'll be amazed at how manageable it is!

 

[Lou C]

Re: Leaky after service

I do mine every year. Pulling it off is usually easy, it sometimes can be hard to get the driveshaft to line up and slide into the coupler when re-installing. When I started doing this myself I built a wood stand with adjustable casters under it, this worked pretty well but then I upgraded to one of these which makes it even easier, goes on in 15 min just like Don said. It really depends on how strong your lower back is, if you have back problems I'd get one of these to make it easier. Stumpy's Fabworks makes it.....

 

[noclutch]

Re: Leaky after service

For any that have helped me here or are interested in sleuthing this out, these are my findings from yesterdays outing.

So I take her to the river to run and float around while trying to determine from where the leak is coming. Two days prior I put a auto floor jack under the trailer tongue jack and cranked the bow WAY up there- got an additional quart or two of nasty and clearly bilge fouled water. Towel dried it, placed dry towel where the fore areas of the bilge drain into the engine compartment- this small towel gets fairly wet en route to the river while under the engine stays dry. Spent 4 hours intermittently cruising around, idling around, turning lock to lock practicing parallel parking , running in reverse, and just anchored enjoying the beautiful weather and my first mate Check the compartment every 15 minutes or so to see if I could associate any particular activity to water incursion. Throughout all of this there was minimal forward drainage coming back and the engine bay stayed dry...till towards last hour of my outing.....:cold:
First a tablespoon of fresh clean water that isn't brown/fouled, then a teaspoon a couple times- wiped it up each time. None coming from in front of the engine bay bilge. Decide that I must be going crazy and there is no significant leak and call it a day with a dry enough? engine bay, power-assisted load up on the trailer, raise the out drive and pull out-> in the parking lot last inspection about 3-4 ounces of clean water have accumulated just as a result of raising the drive and pulling her out of the water.
My deduction: almost all of what I'd seen before was indeed forward bilge left overs, BUT there is indeed a minor fresh water incursion that accumulated in the drive bellows corrugations and was emptied forward when the drive was lifted and the bellows stern end was bent upwards? So it certainly seems that there is a minor bellows leak that I just need to pull the drive to confirm, but is not likely to be a boat-sinking tear. But it may be a u-joint and gimbal bearing compromising amount that needs to be addressed.

Feel free to speculate beyond this or add any other theories. I'm a noob at boat maintence, obviously, but compelled to become less so!

Thanks LouC and JAS- it tis the fear of the unknown that is holding me back on this, but a dolly is looking to be in my future as I'll probably be hanging on to this boat for a long time and would just as soon do these type things myself. Also, an engine oil sump pump is on my tool box list!