OMC Drive Problem (800)

[Translab1]

I have a 1985 3.8L OMC I/O. The motor runs great. The drive quit abruptly while motoring at about 3000 RPM?s. Motor kept running but the drive quit. No fwd and no rev. We thought we smelled gear oil but didn?t see any in the water (of course we drifted to a stop from where it happened.)

I saw some threads from many months ago talking about this same outdrive symptom. Some suggested water pump on upper drive, but the guy that had the same problem replaced all parts and unit still did not drive.

With the motor not running and in neutral I can spin the prop?when in fwd I cannot. I am sitting in my hot garage staring at the outdrive. I bought the boat to entice the teenagers to hang with mom and dad. All was working according to plan until this. Any thoughts? Would like to get the family back on the lake without getting a second mortgage.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: OMC Drive Problem (800)

Did the motor rev up when he 'drive quit'?

 

[Translab1]

Re: OMC Drive Problem (800)

the engine did not seem to rev up much...we honestly were perplexed and shut down fairly quickly

 

[WizeOne]

Re: OMC Drive Problem (800)

Any kind of noise at all? Did the motor stay at the 3k when the outdrive 'quit'? While the motor was still running, did you watch the temperature guage. If it had been the pump shaft, the motor would have soon started to warm up.

Have you drained fluids to see what they look like? Most likely is the water pump shaft. It's splines do not run in the oil so if it stripped you'd see no evidence in the oil.

If your ball gears turn when you crank it, I'll go for the water pump shaft. It's not likely any gears as you don't lose fwd and rev at the same time, plus your drive has fail in gear cut on them so if the cable broke you'd just be stuck in gear.

At this point, your just going to have to pull it and see.

 

[Translab1]

Re: OMC Drive Problem (800)

I'm in the process of my first tear down on this drive. We didn't run long at all after it happened and so didn't notice any heating.

Any advice on disconnecting the shift cable so I can finish pulling the upper drive? I removed the cable / housing from the lower unit however the twin pulley fwd/rev cables are interesting to say the least. Assuming I get through unwinding the pulleys, it looks like the cable runs through the upper unit to the transom...then what? i know I can't force the cable up thru the bottom of the upper drive as it looks like it will ruin the cable if i were to try. There must be another connection either in the upper drive near the transom or through the transom. Haven't made it to that point yet and my clymer book is useless in this area.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: OMC Drive Problem (800)

You disconnect the cable in the converter box. Then you remove the retainer clip on the backside of the intermediate housing and pull the cable out the back. Sometimes they use goop to seal it and or the passage way builds up corrosion so they can be tought to pull back out thru the hole. The cable probably has a multi ringed grommet on it where it goes thru the IH. You need to just keep wiggling it, maybe use some penetrant to loosen everything up. Try rotating it back and forth as you pull on it.

Be carefull, you do not want to break it. This is easiest done with the outdrive removed from the privot trunions.

Before you reinstall the cable, you'll want to clean the passage way in the IH housing and maybe swab some zinc chromate back in the passage, to keep it from corroding up again.