My Baby is Sick

raybo3

Well my storage marina went to put me in the H2O and my S/B outdrive has a total failure. Drive is shot and I am still on the hard. Boo F'n Hoo....lol. He is looking for a new drive and I should be in the water hopefully by the weekend. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Black_Diamond

Total bummer. I'd take a look at your port drive too by pulling the drain plugs and looking for chips.

raybo3

That was already done and no problem with the port side. I have my gear oil done every fall. This was found in the fall for winter storage but the marina forgot to tell me till spring prep. Only setting me back a couple of days but I could have saved a little $$$$$ through the winter...lol

Black_Diamond

Hope they can find a drive for you quickly, sure would have been nice to have a few months to get a better deal.  Just an FYI these guys do overhauls/upgrades and offer a 2 year warranty and are competitive to a rebuilt unit www.allamericandriveservice.com They are in Michigan, George is the guy to talk to, he'll talk your ear off with lots of quality information. 

raybo3

I saw there site last night however my marina repair guy had one in stock for another boat but will use it for me and I will be floating tomorrow. The drive is about $6500.00. (Brand New)

TikiHut2

Bummer Ray. There's been far too much of that outdrive pain going around lately. Hope it's not catchy.

I just pulled mine last fall and put in a new gimbel bearing for no other reason than it was 10y/o. A $6500 OD failure would be a catastrophic loss for us at this point. You can bet I'd be searching far and wide to keep the cost down. Glad it worked out for you but I'd be talking to my yard guy about earlier notice when he finds a problem, as I can imagine you have.
Have a great season, Mike

raybo3

Hi Mike I can not say to much to my guy. He is awesome and when I was going through my divorce I did not pay him for anything for a year and a half. It hurt catching up.....lol but he was more than great. He did find the problem in the fall but he forgot to write it down and then forgot to tell me. Trust me he was mad at himself because that was good "winter" work for him. Anyhow I will be floating tomorrow. I am thinking of jumping on one of those credit cards that give you 0% for a year and just paying it off before the year is over.......

Black_Diamond

Don't want that catchy disease around, been there x2.  I think it boils down to:

* proper bearing set up at buildup (think blue printing an engine), bearing float will affect tooth contact patterns

* improved lubricant over the merc blue stuff

* try and keep it cool via showers (better oil will help too, since it resists breakdown at high temperatures)

* oil analysis will also keep you on top of issues coming forward too if done yearly. 

 

No way it is 'overloaded' by a 350MAG MPI. 

Dream_Inn

Oh man, sorry to hear. I'm one of those with a brand new drive that was installed last week.

l-skynyrd

Shlt Happens to all of us....All part of the life...

Len

Black_Diamond

This weeks update must allow the !*#%! Type words now! lol.

Very true Len!

raybo3

Funny BD I thought the same thing........ Looks like the mod's might have there work cut out for them..LOL Update: boat is floating but still needs a little more work. Should be at my club today or tomorrow. Then the cleaning starts...lol

gslpro

I feel for you.  Lost my starboard drive as well, three weeks after buying the boat.  Luckily, we were able to save the bottom end, but top unit was still $3500.  Lot of money for these things.

TikiHut2

Lyn, being rather savvy, used a lower case "L" to circumvent our puritanical language screen.

Black_Diamond

I see that now.  very savvy indeed!

raybo3

Wow Tiki I did not see that. Thank God or I would have had my work cut out for me.....lol Just a thought. I was thinking of putting the OD cost on a  new credit card with 0% interest for and just pay it down before a year. This way I dont have to touch my savings. Ideas??????????

TikiHut2

Just don't be a second late paying the balance when that 0% runs out. Read the fine print and put that payment date on the calendar. Unless your bank is paying you some scandalous low rate near 1% or less, then just write the check and be done.

I feel for you. Mike

Black_Diamond

Anytime you can work someone elses money at zero interest for a year is a deal, for $6,500 probably worth the new card.  As always the trick is to pay it off before they whammy you with 12 months interest when it rolls to the 13th month, that is an ouch and I bet they (credit people) make a fortune doing this.  They despise people who pay off in time..or in full.

raybo3

I use quicken soft ware to schedule my bills. I can pay it off in 11 months then cancel the card. I would rather do this than hit my savings. I have a daughter starting collage in September and $400.00 a week in child support. God I hate my ex-wife....lol

Black_Diamond

Sounds like a good plan!

l-skynyrd

I don't know if i was being savvy or it was just the Oxycodone and a couple of stiff drinks.....

I had Hernia surgery two days ago. Healing just fine and hope to back on the boat in a few days.

Len

Michael T

Oxycodone AND a couple of stiff drinks - you're lucky you could find your keyboard yet alone be saavy! LOL.... MT.... Hey Len,  Here's to a quick recovery  :-)     P.S. Would it be REALLY rude for me to see if the new software will allow me to type-in George Carlin's 7 forbidden words? Or am I the only guy old enough on the list to even know who George Carlin is and what his 7 forbidden words are :-)

Black_Diamond

I know those words! Tame by todays standards. Lol

212rowboat

So.. the drive.. any idea what happened? I've never busted one open.. do they backlash and pattern like a differential? Do they shim? Could a shim have slipped if so? ... These things are curiosities to me..

Insofar as credit goes, I missed my amex payment by one solid hour due to my bank and their bill pay auto payment and just received notice that my interest rate bounced from 5.9% to freakin 23%+5.9... I haven't argued my case yet, but I get the feeling imah gonna need some of van zants oxy and beverage to weep in afterward.. dang it.. never trust BoA, fellers..

Yo Raybo, look for a card with rewards, and those critters may work out better than a 0% apr.. I ain't talkin prime, but something like 3%+ matching miles may net you a free trip to wherever, and there are places to sell your miles for $$$.. I've done it.. sold 100k miles of aa, worth 1st class round trip for $1200.. smiled all the way to the bank while paying off portion in charges I ran up.. I got a card that gifted 35k miles for signing up..

Black_Diamond

Drew, my B-III props moved axially about 3/8" ... Smoked the thrust bearings, gears were tore up bad. I have no idea how I made it from slip to haulout and was blowing oil like the Valdez on the way. shhhhh.

Michael T

Yes, there are shims. When you see one of these open (and I seen a fair number of them) you realize how inefficient the design is - and has to be - to do the job required. You also wonder why more of them don't blow up. My cruiser is 8 tons with two 380 Hp engines shooting all of the torque out, down and across counter rotating shafts - geez what a nightmare of engineering! MT

Black_Diamond

Or brilliant engineering!

Michael T

Yes, true!  With three engineers in the family I will "wear" that one! I should have said what a nightmare for engineers to have to design around! That's  better :-) MT

raybo3

Len hope your feeling better. The drive had a complete bearing failure and I think its been a problem with Mercruirser because they sell an update kit for this bearing. However my drive was so bad it was not worth a rebuild (case was damaged also) so I just got a new drive. I just hope the other drive is ok for now. Also my seats had all these little black dot's of over them at the end of last year. I think it was mold and it was worse this year when I opened my boat. Having the whole cockpit redone. $2500.00.