So, there I was,,,,,,

wadebmadden

wadebmadden

New Member
Jul 5, 2007
85
Kansas
Ok there is a maintenance question at the end of the story.......


So there I was, it was a beautiful Tuesday afternoon. I was out on the water and I was one of two boats on the lake. All of the sudden the engine siezed up, wouldnt start, lower unit would come up out of the water. I tried to hail the marina on the radio, but it was 5 minutes after closing time. Waved my distress flag, honked the horn, blew my whistle at the other boater, granted he was in a little flat bottom jon boat, he still couldve gave me a ride back to the car. He was ignoring me. His dog was going nuts, but he was ignoring me. Makes me wish I had the potato gun on the boat!!!! Any way, a local cop was crossing the nearby bridge and say my distress flag and stopped. through his bull horn and my flag signal skills we were able to communicate. He called the dispatch and they tried to get ahold of the marina. Any way, the had a couple of deputies launch a pontoon and come get me!!!! Saved me a couple hundred dollars in the process!!!!

Any way, in the Stringer I/O there is whats called a ball gear. It is sortof a universal joint that connects the engine to the stern drive. One half of this gear is sticking out of the transom the other half is on the outdrive. Any way, when I got it out of the water, that gear was just shredded to bits. I drag the boat home and start digging through the boxes that came with the boat when I got it,,,,,, While digging, I found 4 more of these gears that had been stripped....... Obviously this is a frequent occourance.

Should I just put it on a maintenance inspection schedule? Or is there a deeper problem I need to look at????

Thanks

Wade
 
Two things come to my mind: Lubrication, and alignment. The stern drive should be pulled every year for these maintenance items.
 
I don't know much about those older OMC drives, but I do know that the ball gear is very prone to failure. As for whether there are other things wrong, it's not possible to say for sure over the PC; but I would say that first thing's first, and the gear obviously needs to be addressed.

So, regarding this, a friend in his late 60's had a good fix for the ball gear on a boat he had a few years ago. Pretty sharp guy, this friend. He would have both pieces cryogenically (sp?) treated to make them super hard. He swore that doing so made them last many years, and he had this boat a long while so he would know. At the time he was running the boat a lot, and said that he only changed them out once after treating them. Prior, it was a regular thing.
 
Well, I could be wrong, but I think this is an "In water part" lube is going to be difficult to keep it lubed. I think even if you lube it at the start of the day, its going to be gone at the end of the day. It would however have had more lube than if I didnt.

As for allignment. I guess.... It makes sence. I think it could also be just a design flaw.
 
Sorry to hear about that Wade. I'm not sure if you have a OMC/Volvo dealer around, but if so, go by there and pick their brain, see what you can do and maybe get some price on an updated replacement. Piece of mind to not be stranded on the lake again would be good.
Best of Luck
 
there is no alignment on the old stringer mount system.
you have two systems on the drive,
"trim" where the whole engine and drive assembley goes up and down on it's mounts to adjust running angle and
"tilt" where the outdrive raises up for trailering.

The engine should not be started or running unless the "tilt" mechanism is all the way down. If you have been starting the engine or idling around with the "tilt" partially up, that is what is wiping out the ball gears.

They had some good ideas but it was really an oddball system. Strange to watch the engine go up and down in the bilge while you operate the trim.

Weak link are the ball gears, the tilt clutch assy, the tilt hammerblow coupling, the tilt motor, and the exposed bellows that goes around the outside of the drive.

There are also four gear seperate gear oil resivoirs. Lower, upper, intermediate, and tilt clutch.

The impeller is very large and floppy, like the new Merc Gen 11 and lasts a long time.

When the drive is locked down in the running position, there is virtually no wear on those ball gears. The tilt should only be used when the engine is turned off.

Hope this helps.
 
Gerikson is right on the money, except he gave an abreviated list of weak links. In previous years, myself and others ran those old OMC 400's and 800's. We always ran with the tilt in the full down position and never had to replace ball gears. But.... we replaced just about everything else. We found the drives to be quite vulnerable. We had the best luck keeping them together by changing the lube oil 6-8 times per year. In my circle we simply refer to any stringer drive OMC as "hand grenade."

Keep the drive sealed well, and change the oil about as often as you add fuel and you will do better.

That's a beautiful Sea Ray
 
Hi !
I've got a '77 SRV240 with a OMC 235 engine and the same type of outdrive. The ballgear
was OMC's early idea of not using a universal joint to couple the engine to the I/O drive.

Replacing ball gears on the intermediate housing (attached to engine) and the I/O top
unit is best performed by a good marine shop. Or if you have done auto engine repairs like
replacing a head gasket, valves or cylinders, then with the aid of some of the
Clymer manuals you could probably do the job yourself.
A lot of the parts can be obtained online from sources like:
http://www.crowleymarine.com/brp_parts/diagrams/32006.cfm.
Ebay can be good source for these classic boat parts.
I've spent many hours on my boat's I/O replacing seals gaskets and bearings.
Got to expect a little maintenance on a 30yr old boat. I really love it, though.
 
Nehalennia said:
Piece of mind to not be stranded on the lake again would be good.
Best of Luck
Click to expand...
Piece of mind is the greates thing. THe lake dosnt scare me, but it would sure stink to break down on the river or even off shore.

What I am looking at for the quickest, best solution is to add a kicker. A large gas trolling motor or a small outboard. Thoughts?


Thanks wade
 
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