Outdrive Issues
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The outdrive on the boat has been making a loud whine, that sounds like the backlash is set incorrectly. That probably means it needs to be town down and re-shimmed, since the top shim is measuring correctly and that is the only one easily accessible. It also sounds and feels like it may have a bearing going out and I found some foaming in the oil after the last outing, which means one of the seals is bad (I replaced some, but not all). I considered having someone take a look at it, but the local boat mechanics I called are all backed up anywhere from 4-6 weeks, and want to charge north of $100 an hour to investigate. Not really wanting to do that, or have downtime, I found a used one on Craigslist that is in good condition, and gambled on purchasing it. My original plans were to use the new one on the boat while I did a complete tear down and reshim of the existing drive, then swap back over to it and sell the old one or keep it as a spare. But upon inspection, the one I purchased today is in far better condition than the one on the boat.
It’s from a Larson boat with a 5.0FL (Ford 302, 190hp) and those boats are typically runabouts or ski boats. That means a much easier life for the outdrive than a 250hp saltwater boat, as they usually won’t be subject to salt exposure or being left in the water long-term and are under less stress from the motor. I believe that to be the life this one led – it has absolutely no corrosion on it and no real sign of salt water exposure, a few scratches but no dents, chips, or missing chunks of skeg. It spins freely and was full of remarkably clean oil and apparently has good seals because it hissed air when I pulled the dipstick. I paid $800 for it, which is a steal compared to used ones on Ebay, which go for four times that much in this condition. If it is in as good of condition inside as it is on the outside, I will probably just throw this on the boat and sell my old one as-is for someone else to deal with.
This does happen to be a SX-S, not a SX-M like is on the boat now. The SX-S is an older generation (1994-1996, this one manufactured on 6/15/1994) vs the SX-M that started running in 1998. Fortunately, they’re 100% compatible regarding mounting and this presents no issues. The gear ratio is slightly different, with this one being a 1.66 vs 1.60, but close enough that it shouldn’t make much difference.
I didn’t bother sanding or doing much prep on it, but debadged it and threw a coat of fresh OE Volvo paint on to fresh it up a bit. It looks good from a few feet away, which is all I was going for. On inspection, I found that the outer part of the shifter seal is dry rotted, so I ordered a replacement for $20 online. Other than that, the U-joints are a little suspect, but are serviceable, so I repacked them. They feel a lot better, but I may swap the joints from the current drive over when swapping the drives out, depending on how they feel side by side. Those are kind of a maintenance item, anyway.
