Slow leak!

Hi Everyone,

It's my first week with my new to me 1997 250DA. We love our new boat but i noticed that it's taking on a bit of water now. Wasn't the first day we used it but now the bildge pump is coming on every 50 mins and runs for about 20 seconds. I Moore my boat so I have to address this or it will stress me out all the time my boat is out of sight. I tried to look around the transom area from inside the boat but it's hard to see. I got my hand in the cavity around the transom where everything comes through from the drive and it's wet. I'm thinking it's likely a bellows or something. I already replaced the exhaust bellows because it was broken in two and it was easy to change.
My question is about the best practice at this point. Should I just suck it up and buy a full transom kit and replace everything while I have it apart or would I be fine to just replace the bellows if that's what i find to be cracked? Also, has anyone had any experience with the aftermarket kits? I'm leaning towards oem parts where I Moore it but there is a big difference in price.

Thanks

That boat needs to get out of the water.
You're only a dead battery or crapped out bilge pump away from sinking.

Do it right the first time and be done with it.
U-joint bellows, shift cable bellows, gear lube hose if you have one, trim pucks.

Yes, you're right! Going to take it out today. Did some reading yesterday and I'm just going to replace everything while I have it out. The extra cost really sucks but it will pay off in the long run.
I'm thinking I'll do the shift cable too. Going to use own parts.

Make sure your swivel shaft isn't leaking or you will be doing it all over again.

Not to go off on a tangent in this thread but like scoflaw said and waterboy implied, if you find the leak to be related to something in the transom assembly it's sometimes better to replace the the whole thing then to fix the individual components, given the age of your boat. It'll cost a bit more upfront but it's like night and day and cheaper in the long run.

Just something to consider. Good luck finding your leak but and getting it solved soon.

Took my boat out today and pulled the drive. Driveshaft bellows was full of water. Likely the drive came out easy. I greased the joints right away and squeezed out any water that got in the joints. I couldn't feel or see a tear but there has to be one there. Going to start shopping for parts tomorrow. Watched some good videos on the complete job. Doesn't seem too bad but looks like I'm going to have to get creative with a few of the things that call for special tools. Anyone have any luck replacing the gimbal bearing without the puller and driver?

AutoZone will lend you an axle bearing puller set that screws on the end of a slide hammer which they also have.
A 6-point allen socket will work on the bellhousing hinge bolts, even though the 12-point would be better. 150 ft/lbs on reassemble

Make sure you replace all of the bellows and seals if you have the drive off and are fixing things. The leaks are probably the shift cable bellows too. Exhaust bellows won't sink a boat. In fact they are often two piece and only close when the drive is tilted down. Now is also the time to replace trim/limit senders if they are not working.

I plan on doing all of that as well as the water inlet hose and drive oil hose. Also going to replace the shift cable even though it seems perfectly fine. I don't think any of this has been done yet and it's a 1997 so I'm hoping if I do it all now I'll be off the hook for a few years.

Yep just do it all and be done. I did this myself a couple of years ago. In my case the shift bellows were leaking. Bought a couple of tools (hinge pin tool, socket for the shift cable, bellows retainer install tool). I already had an alignment tool. I decided to use Sierra parts and did not have any problems. Saved about 20% off Mercruiser parts. I did not replace the gimbal bearing - mine had never gotten wet and it the one thing that is easy to replace at anytime. I also went with the exhaust tube instead of bellows. Spent @$400 in parts and tools and took 2 afternoons. But saved a ton based on the $1200-$1500 quotes I had from the dealers. Read some articles and watch some videos or buy a manual. A very doable moderate difficult DIY job.

Definitely get the split exhaust! Trying to connect the exhaust bellows as one piece is a pain and it isn't worth the time it takes. I got the split version that connect when the drives goes down and it was WAY easier x 2!

I got everything apart and it went pretty good. Until I got to the water inlet hose. No problem taking the plastic retainer out but from what I can figure from the kit I bought, there is an update to how the hose connects to the transom and I have to take it apart from the engine side and that is going to be a PITA. Very hard for me to even see it. I cut the steering hard to starboard and I'm taking the elbow off the starboard side of the engine so I can get myself back there.

This was a huge PITA! And probably added a couple of hours to the project. My original hose was actually in really nice shape and I contemplated leaving it but I'm glad I replaced it in the end. When I took it apart at the transom end i could see the potential for problems. Especially in salt water.

I ended up removing the port side exhaust riser and elbow which gave me enough room to lay on the engine and reach behind it. I also had the steering turned hard to port which got the sterring shaft out of the way. Once you take the hose housing off you'll see that that the end of the inlet hose has the same plastic insert that's on the bellhousing end. I didnt have the tool to try to remove it from inside the boat so i stretched the hose out straight on the outside and cut it real close to the transom plate. That allowed me to see that retainer from the outside and push it through to the inside of the boat using a screw driver. With the hose removed I spend a lot of time with a piece of scotch bright cleaning the corrosion from the bore. From that point on you simply follow the instructions that came with the updated hose kit.

I remember fighting with that hose very well! Purchase the correct tool and it will make the re-assembly much better.

Hi All, I found this thread helpful. I recently bought a 2004 Sea Ray 26 Sundancer Cabin Cruiser with 5.0 MPI. The engine had 330 hours on it and looked good. Since I bought it 7 months ago it always had some water in the bilge- the tech at the time said not to "worry" about it. Recently I have been hearing "water dripping" in the back of the engine and I had a tech look at it, he said the U Joint bellows are leaking and need to be replaced among other things. There is also water in the Gear Lube Reservoir.

The tech said I can drive the boat to a marina 30 minutes away in this condition and he quotes 8 hours of work for the following job:
Replace U Joint Bellow, , replace shift bellows, replace shift cable, replace seals, flush drive, replace gimbal bearing.

I don't believe the necessary maintenance has been done on the boat for a while, the former owner didn't know much about the boat and barely used it.
Since I have to take the boat of the water (boat is always in water in florida, no lift), I want to do the necessary preventive maintenance as well so I avoid problems in the future

I have a number of questions.

1) Are there any other items that need to be replaced or serviced in addition to the list tech gave above.?

I want order the parts in advance from e-bay/ or another online source (any suggestions?)

2) I have a good friend who offered for me use his driveway rather than a marina.
He does everything himself for his boat, a (50 footer with 3 Yamaha engines) and has lots of tools in the garage but is not familiar with Mercruiser. He suggested we can do this job ourselves with enough time at hand.
I am not 100% sure, due to risk of leaking water if not done right. Can this be done at "home"? A solution would be to let the tech do the key parts and we can do the rest..

3) I also need bottom paint, so after the repairs I will ask a marina for a bottom paint.
Any suggestions on paint brand, my friend likes Pettit Trinidad 1088 Black.
My thinking is to buy bottom paint myself and let the marina due the job.
Any thoughts, Suggestions?

Many Thanks in advance!

Everything except resealing the drive is straight forward with basic tools. Resealing the B3 requires special tools

Thank you Scoflaw. I am sorry, what is B3? What kind of tools?

Would I need one of these as well
https://bpi.ebasicpower.com/shop/me...6868a2?zenid=d004f81b9f914ddfefc38a5e9c90359a

B3 is Bravo 111. Lot of labor involved with the seal change, I'd go OEM seals. Prop shaft carrier puller to start with. Probably not worth the expense for a 1 time job

Water Boy said:

This was a huge PITA! And probably added a couple of hours to the project. My original hose was actually in really nice shape and I contemplated leaving it but I'm glad I replaced it in the end. When I took it apart at the transom end i could see the potential for problems. Especially in salt water.

I ended up removing the port side exhaust riser and elbow which gave me enough room to lay on the engine and reach behind it. I also had the steering turned hard to port which got the sterring shaft out of the way. Once you take the hose housing off you'll see that that the end of the inlet hose has the same plastic insert that's on the bellhousing end. I didnt have the tool to try to remove it from inside the boat so i stretched the hose out straight on the outside and cut it real close to the transom plate. That allowed me to see that retainer from the outside and push it through to the inside of the boat using a screw driver. With the hose removed I spend a lot of time with a piece of scotch bright cleaning the corrosion from the bore. From that point on you simply follow the instructions that came with the updated hose kit.

Click to expand...

The tech that does my work has nice moving company pads for protecting furniture that he lays down on the engines while servicing hard to reach parts. That and the right extensions for tools saves an Advil or two. Might be worth buying if you do a lot of this work.

scoflaw said:

B3 is Bravo 111. Lot of labor involved with the seal change, I'd go OEM seals. Prop shaft carrier puller to start with. Probably not worth the expense for a 1 time job

Click to expand...

Thank you for your response, I am sorry, my message is so late.
I was so busy I did not get a chance to attend to my "boat" matters until today.