mobocracy
Active Member
This is going to be year 2 for my 2007 310 DA with 350 Mags & Bravo III outdrives.
I had the outdrives inspected last year when I bought the boat and didn't hear about any work that needed to be done. This was at MarineMax, and I expect if they could have made a dollar recommending something, they would have. Boat ran fine and I didn't experience any mechanical problems.
Because I'm starting out the 2nd year on the water with this boat and will be using a different vendor than MarineMax for service, I'm thinking I should have the drives/bellows inspected by the likely mechanic who will service the boat at my location. But what should I ask for, and what's reasonable? I am only a seasonal boater who boats in fresh water on a lake.
I have spoken to all manner of presumed experts, including mechanics, and I get a different riff from all of them. I just smart enough to know I need to do something, but not smart
What I have distilled is:
1) Change gear oil (my marina does this when winterizing)
2) Every year -- pull drives, grease shafts, replace seals, inspect bellows
3) Bellows changes? The most intelligent sounding mechanic I spoke to said "every 10 years unless cracked/damaged" along with some other things that make sense because of access while the bellows get changed (unfortunately I didn't write this part down). I had one place tell me to replace them outright every 3 years, which struck me as a lot.
4) Any other "major" services I should consider given my boat is 11 years old with an unknown service history?
It's not practical for me to do this myself, so part of this is sanity checking what's good PM vs. what's reasonable to spend money on. I know some of you talented DIYers with time and facilities probably do everything every year, but that's probably not viable cost wise for me to pay to have done.
I had the outdrives inspected last year when I bought the boat and didn't hear about any work that needed to be done. This was at MarineMax, and I expect if they could have made a dollar recommending something, they would have. Boat ran fine and I didn't experience any mechanical problems.
Because I'm starting out the 2nd year on the water with this boat and will be using a different vendor than MarineMax for service, I'm thinking I should have the drives/bellows inspected by the likely mechanic who will service the boat at my location. But what should I ask for, and what's reasonable? I am only a seasonal boater who boats in fresh water on a lake.
I have spoken to all manner of presumed experts, including mechanics, and I get a different riff from all of them. I just smart enough to know I need to do something, but not smart
What I have distilled is:
1) Change gear oil (my marina does this when winterizing)
2) Every year -- pull drives, grease shafts, replace seals, inspect bellows
3) Bellows changes? The most intelligent sounding mechanic I spoke to said "every 10 years unless cracked/damaged" along with some other things that make sense because of access while the bellows get changed (unfortunately I didn't write this part down). I had one place tell me to replace them outright every 3 years, which struck me as a lot.
4) Any other "major" services I should consider given my boat is 11 years old with an unknown service history?
It's not practical for me to do this myself, so part of this is sanity checking what's good PM vs. what's reasonable to spend money on. I know some of you talented DIYers with time and facilities probably do everything every year, but that's probably not viable cost wise for me to pay to have done.