Pre Alpha outdrives

[Loyd Dinneen]

I have a 77 searay weekender 240 and am at the moment dealing with twin out drives The starboard drive which had a seals and a new waterpump installed on the lower end and now it won't shift into reverse, I suspect the stainless washer was left out off the shift shaft I had heard that that will cause no reverse. It shifted fine before we removed it.
The port outdrive I have put new seals,bellows,waterpump,gimbel bearing,gimbel bearing seal,and gaskets in it now I am having trouble getting it to go back in. I have had it almost in and discovered I had the case seal in the wrong place so removed it to put the seal in the right place. I am now at the point of attempting it again. I understand a swift kick helps seat it thats how I almost had it in before, but my arteritic knee will not take that again any other suggestions or is there a boater out there that lives in Las Vegas can help me out. I will buy ya a case of beer for your help. I will also take ya out fishing at lake meade. I'm a retired disabled Vietnam Vet and I love to fish. I also know how to fix fishing rods and reels. Just can use someones help. Thanks

 

[NorCal Boater]

Loyd, when I have installed outdrives sometimes they slip right in and sometimes they fight you all the way. The usual reason they don't slip in is that the drive shaft splines are not lined up with the splines on the coupler. The best way to fix this is to have the drive in gear (if I remember, reverse when going in, forward when coming out) have a prop on the shaft and turn the prop shaft a bit while sliding the drive in. It will eventually line up and slide in. Also remember that the square-cut O-ring that goes around the outdrive will keep it from seating all the way. You will have to use the 6 nuts to pull the drive in the final 1/8"-1/4". And that brings ne to another question. Are you sure there is only one (1) square-cut o-ring on the drive. Sometimes when the drive is pulled they stay inside the bell housing. We forget they are there, put the new ring on and we are then trying to get the drive to snug up against the 2 rings. Be sure there is not 2 in place. Sorry, can't help with the shifting. Never had that problem.
Shawn

 

[Loyd Dinneen]

Thanks for responding good news is I was able to get the drive in today with the help of a friend of my sons who gave it a swift kick that got me some threads and I was able to bolt it in. I know about the large gasket that goes inside the case, a friend of mine told me where to put that and how to install it. I was trying to put it over the nose of the drive, I think thats where I took the last one off of course that didn't work LOL and I had the drive on that time . I also took some 1000 grit wet and dry sand paper and polished the nose of the outdrive and the inside of the case then greased it up good. Apparently who ever was in there last did not install that large rubber gasket thus why it leaked into the u-joint billows area and took out the gimbel bearing. The billows were all like new but I replaced them anyway and saved them for later. The only issue I had was caused by the last owner who loaded the boat on the trailer and put it about 8" to far forward so the bottom of the outdrive was hitting the back of the trailer and preventing it from hanging straight and that put the unit in a bind. We solved that by me holding up the lower end away from the trailer while the other person put a swift back kick to it, that got me the threads I needed to seat it in. I did have to watch the shifting arm to make sure it stayed in forward gear. On the other drive that does not have reverse I looked on a Iboat blog and someome mentioned that if you leave the stainless washer off the shift shaft it you will lose reverse because the shaft or something will go to far down and not engage. So tomorrow I will drop the lower end on the starboard outdrive enough to feel or look in there and see if the washer is in there, if not I will try to slip one in place without dropping the drive all the way down, they are a bear to get back on. I WILL get this hole in the water in the lake soon as I am paying $250.00 a month for the slip and haven't got it in the water yet to use it. Right now we have 40mph winds so will have to wait for those to settle down. The outdrives are the last thing to fix (hopefully) before launch.

 

[Loyd Dinneen]

Well now working on the starboard side removed found lots of issues(read the blog on the vintage searay site) and guess what the shift shaft washer was left out when we replaced the waterpump but when taking the upper and lower outdrive off found water in the new oil ,oil in bellows, and the gimbel bearing shot. Again the bellows look new but off they come and new ones to be installed when the parts arrive. At least now I know what to do and have the tools to do it with some purchased others built with the help of the internet. So someday I can get out fishing and away from all these noisy city sounds. Oh and the winds have settled down.LOL