1987 268 sinking....slowly

[mh268]

Hey everybody, so I went down to the marina and found the side of the dock all wet. turns out my bilge pump has been cycling and splashing water on the dock. The water it is pumping out is salt water and pretty clear looking. The pump cycles about once an hour for 10 seconds give or take. I have looked at the bellows, swim step mounting bolt holes etc and cant find a leak. Anybody have any ideas as to where I should start looking? I was planning to have it out of the water next weekend to paint the bottom but I want to locate this leak before I pull it out so I can fix it on land. Thanks everybody

 

[CAGE RATTLER]

When I had a leak It came from a bad seal at the pivot arm on my bravo1. not sure if the B3 has the same problem or not but the bravo1's all seam to leak there eventually. Not only was the pivot arm seal leaking, my transom assembly was rotted threw underneath causing a leak. It was very hard to see and find. In fact i didnt even know the transom assembly was corroded all the way through till they pulled it apart to replace the pivot arm seal.

Good luck

 

[kaz911]

Hey everybody, so I went down to the marina and found the side of the dock all wet. turns out my bilge pump has been cycling and splashing water on the dock. The water it is pumping out is salt water and pretty clear looking. The pump cycles about once an hour for 10 seconds give or take. I have looked at the bellows, swim step mounting bolt holes etc and cant find a leak. Anybody have any ideas as to where I should start looking? I was planning to have it out of the water next weekend to paint the bottom but I want to locate this leak before I pull it out so I can fix it on land. Thanks everybody

The two most likely leak places are

1. The pitot tube from the bravo 3 to the engine - used to measure speed. Look at the top"ish" opening of the transom for a rubber hose. (cheap fix)
2. The Steering pin inside the transom housing - unless you are very acrobatic - it is almost impossible to look in there - but use a camera with flash and take a picture into the top hole of the transom behind the engine. (EXPENSIVE FIX - just done it on two engines)

If it is either it will drip down "inside" the transom housing and sometimes hit the shaft from the bravo 3 - so look for rust on it - that is a clear indicator.

You can sprinkle a bit of baby powder around the engine room to trace where it comes from if the above visual inspections fail.

/Kasper

 

[JimG]

Shift cable boot... see if the leak slows up when you leave the drive turned hard to port.

 

[Getaway]

2. The Steering pin inside the transom housing - unless you are very acrobatic - it is almost impossible to look in there - but use a camera with flash and take a picture into the top hole of the transom behind the engine. (EXPENSIVE FIX - just done it on two engines)


/Kasper

That was the cause of the leak on my Alpha1. I'm pretty sure the Bravo's are very similar. A good indicator is if you raise the lower unit all the way up, the leak gets worse and worse the further it is raised. The leak will slow down to a very small trickle as the lower unit is moved all the way down.

The other thing it could be is a rotten transom. In that case, water can come in from just about anywhere.

 

[JimFromMD]

Hopefully not the case for you, but we had a similar thing happen on my brother in law's wellcraft ecclipse. In his case the bilge pump would kick on while we were at raftups maybe once every hour or two. Boat is normally on a lift so it took a while to figure out. Long story short it turns out the Y-pipe for the exhaust coming off the back of the engine had rusted through and had a pin-hole leak in it.

 

[AMFM3]

That was the cause of the leak on my Alpha1. I'm pretty sure the Bravo's are very similar. A good indicator is if you raise the lower unit all the way up, the leak gets worse and worse the further it is raised. The leak will slow down to a very small trickle as the lower unit is moved all the way down.

The other thing it could be is a rotten transom. In that case, water can come in from just about anywhere.

That was the exact issue I had with my previous boat. Once it was fixed, no more leak. Prior to that, not knowing it was there, I ended up with a rotted transom. New transom then new pins...$$$$

It could also be a thru hull somewhere under water. You may see it when you pull it to paint.

Mark

 

[GrandMaster]

It could also be a thru hull somewhere under water. You may see it when you pull it to paint.

Mark

I had a similar situation with a leak around the transducer.

 

[mh268]

Hey everybody thanks for all the advice, i checked it out a little further last night and found the wood all rotten at the transom where it meets the floor of the boat. I see some salt crystals a little higher up near where the driveline comes thru the transom but I really think the transom rot is the culprit. I have never attempted any repair this involved on the boat before so my question is, how hard is this to repair myself? anybody have any ball park prices on if I were to have it done by a pro? I really don't want to give up on this boat, but I don't want to sink $10,000 into it either. Thanks everybody

 

[Getaway]

I paid a good glass man to come over and work on the boat in my barn. I also did a bunch of the work myself. We started in October and finished on Valentines Day. Total cost was around $6500. We replaced the entire sub structure from the transom up to the bathroom including the bulkhead in front of the gas tank and gas tank supports. We also replaced the supports in the aft cabin. My boat was wet up to the bathroom.

Keep in mind, the $6500 was just the tear down and completed glass work. This did not include the engine rebuild, re-installation of the entire drive and rebuild of the lower unit. I also replaced a bunch of "nickle-dime" stuff that probably amounted to $1000 in all.

Hope this does not scare you. If it helps, I'm very glad we did the work. I learned a ton about boat building and know my boat inside and out.

 

[AMFM3]

It was a big job. First both engines were pulled out. Then the glass guy started ripping out the wet part of the transom. We pulled the whole inside transom.

Then he put the marine plywood in an re-glassed the wood after cutting the thru transom holes for the drives.

It was a long process, March to June. When all was said and done it was $5k plus tax.

Mark


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