Mercruiser outdrive won't engage

[Skinned Knuckles]

My girlfriend just sold her 86 Cobalt 260 Mercruiser to a guy that never owned a boat before and he just called and said he was getting towed back to the ramp. <br />From what he told me I gather that he was adjusting the trim while underway and heard a grinding noise and then the boat would not go forwards or backwards anymore. Also there was a smell of gear lube. <br />I have not seen the boat since this happened.<br /><br />Any ideas what happened?

 

[Trent]

Re: Mercruiser outdrive won't engage

Did the engine start to overheat? Id check the engine coupler first. Look in the back of the engine compartment for "rubber dust". Common problem.

 

[Don S]

Re: Mercruiser outdrive won't engage

Without any more information than that, it's hard to say. "Smell of gear lube" would requier gear lube inside of boat......did it have a reservoir, or did the gear lube come through the gimbal bearing? If it came through the gimbal bearing the front seal on the drive had to be bad, or the drive had water in it, built up pressure and forced the oil into the bellows. Or the gears gave up and caused the oil to overheat and blow out the seal and pump all the oil into the bellows and into the engine compartment through the gimbal bearing<br />Along with the grinding noise, it sounds expensive from here.<br />When was the drive pulled and service last, and what condition was the gear lube in then.<br />Too many qustions, not enough answers to say for sure.<br /><br />Just checked out your previous post also......Sure you did the pump correctly and didn't miss the quad ring between the drive halves?<br /><br /> http://www.iboats.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=010089#000000

 

[Skinned Knuckles]

Re: Mercruiser outdrive won't engage

The gear lube looked fine last month. I only spoke to the buyer briefly on his cell phone while he was being towed. It seems to me the problem is related to running the outdrive at an angle, as he stated that he was checking out the tilt while underway. He may not have had the outdrive all the way down when he started. The Cobalt has separate controls for tilting the outdrive up and down for trailering and making trim adjustments. It would not be difficult to confuse the two. <br />I'll get more details later.<br /><br />I know there was no problem with the recent pump installation because we have put about 5 hours of run time on the boat since then and no problems, no leaks or overheating.