boat trouble

[penalty box]

Hey I had to pull my boat this weekend I think my gimble bearing is bad. I have a merc alpha1 outdrive. Does anyone know about what it will cost to have it replaced. The noise is there whether in gear or not so I don't think its the out drive.

[wakina]

The bearing will cost $75.00 to $100.00 for the part with the final price around $350.00 to $450.00 with most of the cost being labor . With that labor cost in mind it may pay you to spend a little more and replace the Bellows/boots if they are getting into their third year or more, other wise you may end up spending that same amount of labor again to relace those items a short while later.

[ReelTime]

When I had an Alpha 1 I did mine myself. It's not a bad job and there are many youtube videos available. Like Wakina said, if you are in there go ahead and replace the bellows/boots. The price for the parts is insignificant.

[penalty box]

thanks for the replies. I'm having someone fix it for me basically they have a flat fee to take it apart and put back together. So to replace the worn items they just charge for the parts so I'm probably going to have a lot of the items replaced. They think it might be the outdrive well see. The outdrive is 2 years old that I replaced my self with one of those se drives. It has a 3 year warranty, I really don't think its bad when I pulled the boat it wasn't even warm. I've pretty much been a do it yourselfer all my life but sometimes its nice to have someone else do the work. I should know in the next couple of days whats wrong with it. My boat is 9 years old and has about 900 hours on it.

[penalty box]

well the jury is out and I wore out another outdrive, the upper half is bad just like the last one. The merc lasted 6 years and the SEI lasted 2 years but its still under warranty and will be fixed for free. I guess I must fish too much.

[sherman51]

are you getting your lower units full of grease? the only time I've lost the upper gears my lower unit was low on grease.

[penalty box]

well the first drive I had Happy days service my outdrive every year. The newer on I did myself every year. I fill from the bottom until oil comes out the top hole. My boat also has the gravity feed feature where there is a resivor of oil in the engine compartment that gravity feeds lube into the unit if it gets low. I personally think that the alpha1 is undersized for my 26 foot boat. The drive that is 2 years old has about 400 hours on it. For not being a charter captain I use my boat a lot. I did add a drive shower to the newer unit to help keep it running cooler apparently it didn't help.

[sherman51]

well the first drive I had Happy days service my outdrive every year. The newer on I did myself every year. I fill from the bottom until oil comes out the top hole. My boat also has the gravity feed feature where there is a resivor of oil in the engine compartment that gravity feeds lube into the unit if it gets low. I personally think that the alpha1 is undersized for my 26 foot boat. The drive that is 2 years old has about 400 hours on it. For not being a charter captain I use my boat a lot. I did add a drive shower to the newer unit to help keep it running cooler apparently it didn't help.

it was just a thought anyway. just glad you have the 3 yr no fault warranty on that outdrive. you could have just got a bad one from the factory. I just put a new fuel pump on my car and headed to fl and made it 750 miles and the new pump went bad. had to have a new pitman arm and idler arm replaced while down there. it still had about 1/4 turn play in the steering wheel. got to checking the front end and the new pitman arm was bad. I replaced it and now the front end is good. just because something is new doesn't really mean its right.