Hey guys I'm new to boating and just went and looked and a rebuilt '77. its been entirely gone threw with a new ford 289. anything to know about these old boats? anything to look out for? it looks extremely mint. took it for a float test and it ran great. has an omc outdrive which I heard to stay away from but for the price its kind of hard to walk away. anything to look for?
buying a '77 srv 185
- Thread starter jmac1212
- Start date
Pirate Lady
Well-Known Member
Yes, look for a used Mercruiser outdrive to put on it.
KRB64
Member
- Oct 12, 2006
- 785
- Boat Info
- '76 SRV195 (our first) -> moved up to
'78 240 WE (now 4 sale because ->)
'82 260 DA shared
- Engines
- A Ford 351, a couple GM 350s and a Cummins 6BT to pull it all (W250)
We had/have a '76 195 with a Ford and Merc. Great little run around boat. OMC is a no go though.
so if I was to do the conversion to a mercruiser, what kind of outdrive would I l look for? would any old used mercruiser do or is there a specific one to look out for?
BillK2632
Well-Known Member
So I am no expert on this - my only experience with an OMC drive is a neighbor at the lake years ago had a nice Century with the old OMC string drive - the boot eventually failed and the boat sank in 80ft of water - literally sank out from under him.
If this boat has a stringer drive, those were just a bad design, the outdrive was mounted inside the boat to the stringers and there was this huge rubber boot in the transom, much worse than any bellows in a modern outdrive. To do a conversion to Alpha I you would have to do work on the transom and engine mounts to convert it to an Alpha I -- a major project. OTOH, do some research, I think there are some aftermarket parts available - if you can maintain it, you may want it. Just realize that even new, these were just bad designs.
If it has the OMC Cobra, that is a different story. Those were actually very good drives, it's just they haven't been made in years and parts are hard to come by. There IS however a conversion kit made by SEI (they also make aftermarket Mercruiser parts / drives). So if it is a Cobra, I would have no problem buying it - run it while it works and you can maintain it, then use the kit to upgrade to an Alpha I when you need to.
Those old SeaRays are great, hate to see one go to the graveyard due to a drive that cannot be maintained.
If this boat has a stringer drive, those were just a bad design, the outdrive was mounted inside the boat to the stringers and there was this huge rubber boot in the transom, much worse than any bellows in a modern outdrive. To do a conversion to Alpha I you would have to do work on the transom and engine mounts to convert it to an Alpha I -- a major project. OTOH, do some research, I think there are some aftermarket parts available - if you can maintain it, you may want it. Just realize that even new, these were just bad designs.
If it has the OMC Cobra, that is a different story. Those were actually very good drives, it's just they haven't been made in years and parts are hard to come by. There IS however a conversion kit made by SEI (they also make aftermarket Mercruiser parts / drives). So if it is a Cobra, I would have no problem buying it - run it while it works and you can maintain it, then use the kit to upgrade to an Alpha I when you need to.
Those old SeaRays are great, hate to see one go to the graveyard due to a drive that cannot be maintained.