taking on water

[stratcat88]

hey guys. just had a used 260hp mercruiser installed by a craigslist mech and am i getting screwed, but long story short, the boats on a lift on the icw right now and i have to take her a couple of miles to the boat ramp to put her on the trailer. water is comming it looks like from the bellows. boat has never run right since i bought it but its always been dry as a bone . 1985 chriscraft scorpion 254. if the bellows are leaking what can i do temp. to get it to the ramp? please help. thanks.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: taking on water

Get yourself an additional bilge pump ,say 1500-2000 ,some alligator clips, wire and some hose. How much and how fast, and does the bilge pump handel it?
Bellows leaking would come in thru the 2 holes in the housing ,above and below the input shaft.Can run the boat this way but U joints and gimbal will need replacing. drive oil should be checked for contamination.
Shift boot is another area for leakage, other is the Y exaust pipe.

 

[stratcat88]

Re: taking on water

thanks bt. new to me engine doesnt run so its got to be towed. the water comes in pretty fast. if it were under power i would just pull the plug.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: taking on water

pretty fast? thats a big leak .have you tried locating the leak or narrow it down?

 

[stratcat88]

Re: taking on water

ya it looks like its comming from the transom area way down in the bildge.put the stern in the water and the water started seeping in.i checked the new water pickup they installed and it looks secure. gonna wait for low tide and set up a ladder and run some water in the engine compartment and see where its comming from. never had water before. the prop hit a rock as we were loading the boat on the lift and it chewed it up pretty good. nitemare goin on. the so called mech doesnt pick up his phone. out 2500.00.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: taking on water

So, this guy installs a motor you bought . Who checked the motor before installation? Was it test run out of the boat?
You launch and drive a few miles to the lift. I assume this few mile trip was trouble free and no leaks? You bang a boulder and it starts leaking badly. you put in on a lift and say your getting screwed.Did i leave anything out?
You could have dislodged the transom from the hull, cracked the transom housing,broken some transom mounting bolts .see if you can insert a business cad between the transom and the hull.
Leakage would not be coming from engine components. seal failure or crack is suspect.

 

[cr2k]

Re: taking on water

Not defending the Mech at all, but sometimes when we do a repair we find a lot of marginal or bad stuff that is not readily seen on any inspection. Most mechanics try to bring this to the customers attention. A lot of the time we get accused of trying to "create" more wok and income. Sometimes people tell us they want it done as cheap as possible so stuff gets ignored. It's a balancing act to fix what the customer wants, not make him think we are trying to scam him, and when it's all over and something "else" go bad we always get blamed for the problem and the customer wants to stick it to us. It is very important to find a good mechanic that you can trust.
Just because something was "just replaced" (and sometimes this can mean last month or 2 years ago) doesn't mean it isn't or can't go bad again.

Hopefully NOT your case but still "just sayin'".

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: taking on water

I now video my repairs and burn them to a disc to give the customer ,this way there is no discussion on "It didnt sound like that when i dropped it off". And to me if they claim funny noise after they install it.

 

[stratcat88]

Re: taking on water

Not defending the Mech at all, but sometimes when we do a repair we find a lot of marginal or bad stuff that is not readily seen on any inspection. Most mechanics try to bring this to the customers attention. A lot of the time we get accused of trying to "create" more wok and income. Sometimes people tell us they want it done as cheap as possible so stuff gets ignored. It's a balancing act to fix what the customer wants, not make him think we are trying to scam him, and when it's all over and something "else" go bad we always get blamed for the problem and the customer wants to stick it to us. It is very important to find a good mechanic that you can trust.
Just because something was "just replaced" (and sometimes this can mean last month or 2 years ago) doesn't mean it isn't or can't go bad again.

Hopefully NOT your case but still "just sayin'".

the guy told me he would install a used 260hp 350ci mercruiser with ALL marine parts+ install warm up neutral throttle+cable, new faria tach,mph,fuel gauges, for 2500.00 AND a one year warr. on all parts and labor. thats it. nothing hidden. he said he took it on a trail run on lake and got 35 mph and took a video of it. cant wait too see that. oh ya he wont pick up his phone.the day we went to pick up the boat that he had for a MONTH i said lets take it out BUT GUESS WHAT? he had fallan that day and broke his ribs. so i trusted him and gave him the balance of what i owed. took it to the ramp put her in the water gave it some>*&*^%$^#@ GAS AND/.,/.,$#@@$*&( NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING.
idled all the way homeand been here ever since.

 

[alldodge]

Re: taking on water

With it being on a lift, lift the outdrive and if it is in the bellows or bellows area, push some towels in there. Stuff them in as best you can and put the drive down. Lower the lift and see if you bildge pump can keep up.

 

[stratcat88]

Re: taking on water

bt if it were the transom where about would i look outside.inside ?

 

[stratcat88]

Re: taking on water

Not defending the Mech at all, but sometimes when we do a repair we find a lot of marginal or bad stuff that is not readily seen on any inspection. Most mechanics try to bring this to the customers attention. A lot of the time we get accused of trying to "create" more wok and income. Sometimes people tell us they want it done as cheap as possible so stuff gets ignored. It's a balancing act to fix what the customer wants, not make him think we are trying to scam him, and when it's all over and something "else" go bad we always get blamed for the problem and the customer wants to stick it to us. It is very important to find a good mechanic that you can trust.
Just because something was "just replaced" (and sometimes this can mean last month or 2 years ago) doesn't mean it isn't or can't go bad again.

Hopefully NOT your case but still "just sayin'".

oh im sorry i forgot. when to trim down and it wasnt going down. called up one of the mech that he hired to help and he said i have to push the trailer switch and the up switch to go down. you know what i think ill make a video and show you.

 

[stratcat88]

Re: taking on water

With it being on a lift, lift the outdrive and if it is in the bellows or bellows area, push some towels in there. Stuff them in as best you can and put the drive down. Lower the lift and see if you bildge pump can keep up.

i will try that thanks man.

 

[stratcat88]

Re: taking on water

just sayin!