Where should raw water be pumped out of an alpha gen II?

G

glocklt4

Member
Jul 31, 2008
447
Dallas, TX
Boat Info
200 Sport
Engines
5.0L Carb / Alpha I Gen II
Edit: Video here to show what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIIjeuWUvX8

Edit 2: I took the drive apart tonight and put it back together. Everything looked fine, doing the same thing, except one big thing I noticed... the water coming out of the spot in the later half of the video is HOT water once the engine warms up... so this tells me that the water should be coming out of there. Thoughts???


Orig:

I never really paid attention when I had muffs on my alpha in the past, but after replacing the impeller on mine over the past few days, I got her running again yesterday and it seems like there is possibly water coming out of holes I didn't notice it before (meaning I may have a leak).

It came out of:

-a small pencil eraser sized hole on the port/starboard sides of the drive right around where the bottom and top halves of the drive bolt together.
-the area where the gear shifter rod and speed tubes go where the drive halves come together (a decent stream coming down over the anode)
-a tad bit of water looked like it was coming out of the prop area with the engine exhaust
-most water coming out of the normal water ports on the transom by the bellows.

(pic below to help and video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIIjeuWUvX8m )

So where should one expect water to come out of if these are not the right spots? (ignore arrow at prop area.. shouldn't get much there)

alphawaterpassages.jpg
 
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I have water coming out of the prop area and from the exhaust openings in the transom bracket - as you mention that is where the bulk of the water comes from. I haven't noticed water coming out of the other openings. If you have the exhaust bellows connected on both ends you may have more water coming out of the prop. If you have your bellows removed like me or have the newer style which only connects on the transom side you may have less water coming out of the prop area. I do get water running down the sides of the drive but it originates from the transom exhaust. Mine are 96 Gen II's if that helps any.
 
I'll keep your thread going till a gen II tech chimes in for you. I myself have replaced the circulator pumps in both boats I've owned. Granted they were Gen I's but I believe the flow may be the same. On a Gen I the pump discharge is 100% sealed with a tube and "O" ring, plastic elbows and flexible hose. Water flows directly from pump through transom bulkhead connector with no leaks. All return water comes out the exhaust.

I'll believe you may have a problem with the gasket and "O" ring seal! Hang loose till some good Gen II info filters in. ...Ron
 
Great, thanks guys. I will PM Dennis to see if he can help out further. So far I think I'll have to crack her back open. We put the boat up for the season last night since there is a lot goign on the next few weeks, so I'll probably wait until spring to do it, but at least I have plenty of time to figure out if it's a problem.
 
tdappleman said:
I have water coming out of the prop area and from the exhaust openings in the transom bracket - as you mention that is where the bulk of the water comes from. I haven't noticed water coming out of the other openings. If you have the exhaust bellows connected on both ends you may have more water coming out of the prop. If you have your bellows removed like me or have the newer style which only connects on the transom side you may have less water coming out of the prop area. I do get water running down the sides of the drive but it originates from the transom exhaust. Mine are 96 Gen II's if that helps any.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by exhaust bellows removed? I didn't know there was an option... ?:huh: Do you have through hull exhaust and blocked the exhaust bellows??
 
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glocklt4 said:
What do you mean by exhaust bellows removed? I didn't know there was an option... ?:huh: Do you have through hull exhaust and blocked the exhaust bellows??
Click to expand...

The exhaust bellows typically connect the transom to the outdrive. Mine slipped off one end and I've just left it off and then removed it from the other engine. It isn't necessary for the bellows to be connected to the outdrive - but does help reduce the noise level some. The newer style only connects to the transom side. One thing this page says is more carbon deposits on rear of boat but I haven't noticed any in the year I've been running this way. It is a bit louder at idle but I like it and at cruise it's basically the same - wind noise really prevents me from hearing any difference.

Link for more information: http://www.mercstuff.com/exhaustbellows.htm

Original style:
exhaustbellows1.jpg


Newer style:
exhaustbellows2.jpg
 
Makes sense. Thanks! So if your exhaust bellow rot out and get a hole, I guess it's no problem... but the bellow that houses the drive shaft is the one that has the issue then. Obviously if you see your exhaust bellows rotting, you have probably mere minutes before the drive shaft bellows goes out, ha.
 
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Hey guys, I pulled the boat out of storage today and tomorrow I'm going to flush anti-freeze out of the engine and revisit this little problem. Now that I have a 1080p video camera, I'll take a video and post it so you can see exactly how the water is coming out of it.
 
Ok, here is a video in high quality so you can see. There is water coming out of a hole right above the forward/reverse linkage. It spits out at a pretty good rate and this is really the only place that is a bit concerning (i zoom in on it towards the end of the video). Besides that the only other place I see raw water coming out is a little stream from the drain holes on each side below that. Engine warmed up to 170 fine and t-stat opened. Water coming out was warm, but not too hot. No major steam except a bit of the normal coming out from the prop exhaust port.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIIjeuWUvX8

Does this seem to indicate that the pipe on the inside hooking from the impeller housing to the hose in the top drive half is not sealing correctly?
 
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FYI, Dennis (Lazy Dayz) already PM'ed me back that this is not normal. Water should not be shooting out of there. Since I just spent the past 5 hours washing everything up after storage over winter, I'm going to wait until tonight when it's all dried up and I'll drain the drive lube and crack her open again to see what's going on. Fun!!
 
Ok, I took the drive apart again tonight and everything was fine. Put it back together and it did the exact same thing. While she was running, I got brave and started feeling around there and noticed something big. The small jet of water from my video is HOT water after the engine warmed up... so that tells me that it is supposed to come out of there since it has gone all the way to the engine and back to the drive.

I cannot find diagrams anywhere that show where water should be flowing through the drive, so if anyone has any, PLEASE please post.

Anyone have any thoughts at all?
 
With the exhaust bellows disconnected from the outdrive, would the heat/hot water/ gases now going directly around the drive shaft bellows cause them to age or fail prematurely?
 
docofthebay said:
With the exhaust bellows disconnected from the outdrive, would the heat/hot water/ gases now going directly around the drive shaft bellows cause them to age or fail prematurely?
Click to expand...

I'm confused... can you describe more? Seems as if you're talking about swapping the normal exhaust bellows for the open-ended exhaust but nothing to do with the water flow...
 
Sooo... since no one is reading this, can anyone post a video of their alpha running on muffs???
 
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