Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey all - here's what I've got. 2004 22' Tracker Pontoon with an 3.0L Mercruiser and Alpha1 drive.

Yesterday we were out on the river for a few hours and just as we were getting back to the dock I heard a loud thunk come from the stern drive. It sounded like I hit a rock but I was still out in the middle of the channel.

Instantly there was a vibration in the steering wheel. It still ran however and we putted back to the dock. I recovered the boat out of the water and expected to see some dings in the prop. There was nothing though, either on the skeg or on the prop, that indicated any contact with anything in the water.

When I turned the prop with my hand though there's a loud tick coming from just behind the prop. Also the trail of water that the boat brought up with it from the landing to where I strap it down had a nice rainbow, oily slick with it.

Help - where to start? What the heck did I do here?? Lower unit toasted?

Edit - according to the tank of gear lube in the engine bay, it is full and a nice green color.

Damn damn damn damn... took out the plug and the green fluid is milky and there was a lot of shavings on the magnet.

So what does a new/rebuilt lower end unit cost? Btw this is the third time out since we bought the boat from a dealership - does anyone think they may be partly responsible for this?

Man that sucks. As far as seller repairing I doubt it would go as Oklahoma is a buy at your own risk state. I know lower ends are expensive but hopefully Ed will be of some help.

Good Luck

that BITES!!!
i think the alpha I drive is like $2-2.5k... and thats just the part...

bm> does anyone think they may be partly responsible for this?

it's more likely related to your prop strike when you avoided the kayaker and left the river channel.
hitting a prop at speed puts very high stresses on the gears. an aluminum prop is nicer to the gears
than a stainless steel prop, but high loads still pass into the sterndrive.

depending on what gear you're in, that loud tick you hear when you turn the prop is probably just the
shifting dogs. if so, the click is normal. it should reverse direction from forward to reverse.

i would hope that you got lucky and just lost a seal between the driveshaft and the oil filled cavity.
but the loud thunk you heard bothers me. have someone look at before you go out and buy a new
one.

there are some off-brand sterndrives that some people love, some hate. i think they're less than half
the price. in general you get what you pay for but not always with boats and airplanes.

good luck, hope it turns out well for you.

fb

I agree with Flote, it was probably related to your prop strike. Possibly a bent shaft. If you have boat insurance (hopefully you do) it should cover the damages. Alpha drives are very reliable, pretty rare to have any problem unless it's due to neglect or damage from hitting submerged objects or in your case, a sandbar.

If you have to buy another drive, try eBay. I found the complete package for my Starcraft (motor, drive, gimbal, etc. for $2700 with 10 hours on it. Luckily, the seller was in Baltimore so it was an easy pickup. This was 11 years ago though...

If you do find you need a new drive Mecury has a trade-in/trade-up program that has re-manufactured units. Here is a link if you think it might be helpful:

http://sites.mercurymarine.com/portal/p ... ema=PORTAL

I hope it all works out for you.

Well I've got some very good news from the insurance adjuster and the mechanic.

They looked at both the upper and lower unit and found that both are in perfect condition. Apparently there is a bad seal that blew out ($120 to fix) and that is why water was in the gear lube. The mechanic said it was probably bad before we bought the boat.

The loud THUNK and subsequent vibration was caused by hitting an underwater piece of wood. It didn't do any damage to the paint on the skeg or prop but the prop blades are bent (I did notice this) thus causing the vibration.

The adjuster checked the "prop out?" on the shaft and said it's still within 1000 of the manufacture specs. He also said the filings I saw were normal sized.

Sooo... no $500 deductible to pay! $120 of parts and labor to replace the seals and she'll be ready by the weekend. Yea!

Thats great news! Congrats on your good fortune, usually it does not end up so good with our floating money pits!

mike wrote:Thats great news! Congrats on your good fortune, usually it does not end up so good with our floating money pits!

No doubt. I still won't believe it until I'm actually back out on the water and everything is running correctly.

maybe time for a new prop, recondition the original and keep it as a spare.

jafo9 wrote:maybe time for a new prop, recondition the original and keep it as a spare.

Actually, that was my brand new spare ordered off of iboats.com. Bent it the first time out. At least the original prop is back from being reconditioned so I have something to run with while the new one is being fixed.

VERY good news!!!

Very lucky! Truman is 16 feet high so don't have to worry about any sand bars but a floating forest is another animal all together. Wish this f..ing rain would stop. Hope to take first ride Memorial Weekend 10 days to get the freakin water down it'll be close.