• Welcome to the Checkmate Community Forums forums.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions, articles and access to our other FREE features.
    By joining our free community you will be able to:

    » Interact with over 10,000 Checkmate Fanatics from around the world!
    » Post topics and messages
    » Post and view photos
    » Communicate privately with other members
    » Access our extensive gallery of old Checkmate brochures located in our Media Gallery
    » Browse the various pictures in our Checkmate photo gallery

    Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact support by clicking here or by using the"contact us" link at the bottom of the page.

'87 Alpha 1 260 won't go into gear.

B

bencal

New member
Hi guys,

This weekend I had my '87 Enforcer at full throttle when I suddenly heard a clunk, then a whine, and lost power. The engine sounds fine but I when I try to shift into forward the outdrive doesn't engage. When I try to shift into reverse the engine stalls. Any thoughts?

Thanks
 
Uh-oh!

I brought the boat into a reputable shop and should get the verdict in a couple days. Any oppinions on what may have gone, the extent of the repair, and typical costs of major OD repairs?
 
labor is going to eat you alive, I'm guessing $1500 plus............
 
If it is determined that the drive is blown, which it most likely is, I would just look for another one. They are cheap enough. Even a freshened one shouldnt be too hard to find. Just pull yours off, slide on another and your back on the water. Since your broke at wot, I would bet the case took a beating. Most likely not worth repairing it.
 
You might want to give Bob a call at Robert's Marine.

He specializes in drives and keeps many in stock rebuilt and ready to go.

He's one of our supporting vendors. :)
 
Thanks Vinny and Chris for the input. I'll post an update once I get the verdict. Would I be able to determine if the drive was junk if I removed it myself and inspected it? If so, do you think the procedure would be managable. I'm competent enough to do my own winterizing on both inboards and outboards so I'd certainly give it a shot.

Thanks for any ideas,
Paul
 
I broke the upper gears in the alpha I had. The upper gears in the upper housing are the weak part of those drives. My case got a hole about the size of a pencil in it. I was able to repair the case with some J-B weld. There's now oil pressure in it so as long as it doesn't leak it's ok. I bought new stronger gears. The new gears have a larger gear and use a smaller bearing (since the gears are what always break not the bearings). It takes special tools to set the gears up. I purchased all the parts from ebasicpower.com I think. They also have all the install tools. I still have an extra new set of gears that I don't have a use for (bought them for a spare set)...thought about putting them on e-bay along with the set up tools. The job is really pretty simple. The drives are very basic, not complicated at all. The hardest part about the job is removing the bearing race inside the drive housing. It takes a slide hammer and I had to grind on the claws to get them to fit down in there and grab the race. Depending on how much metal got chewed up in there your lower portion could have some bearing damage also. Mine was ok and I didn't do anything to it.
 
Thanks for the great info. If this is the case with mine are you still interested in selling your parts and tools? Did you get any step by step instructions that I could buy too? How could I verify that my upper gears are broken?

Thanks
 
Take the 4 bolts off the top of your outdrive. The top cap comes right off. You'll see the gears right there(you may have to drain some oil out). I used the Clymer manual that's available at any marine places. It is a very detailed repair manual. Tells you excactly how to do it and set it up with all the excact clearences and stuff. Check yours out and well see about selling my tools and stuff.
 
merc offers a reman drive for about 1800 bucks... and it comes with a year warranty... something to consider if your repairs get to 1500 anyway.. a few hundred more bucks and you get some piece of mind... if i had to guess.. i'd say your pinion gear in the lower let loose... but i'll wait for the verdict..
 
Service udate: Lots of metal in the lower unit oil. Trying to decide how much tear down to invest in or to just try to minimize labor and go with a remanufactured replacement. At this point though without further work there's no way to see whether it's the upper or lower unit that went.
Decision, decisions...
 
I'm guessing you drained it from the bottom. Take the four bolts off of the very top. You don't need to unhook or disconnect anything. You can do it right there on the boat. Give the top cap a little tappy tap and twist it of to reveal the upper gears.
 
Cut your losses and down time. Junk that drive and get a reman. If you are not experienced in tearing down a drive or at least experienced in mechanical work, dont try to repair it on your own. Push that shifter in forward, remove the trim pistons, the 6 nuts, pull the drive off and make an anchor out of it. Actually rebuilders will give you some credit if, the cases are good, towards the purchase of a rebuilt unit.
 
Thanks again Vinny and Bigs for your advice. On Chris' recommendation I just emailed Bob from Roberts Marine to see if he has any rebuilts. Mercury wants $3250 for their refurbs and Ebasic Power wants $1900 for new aftermarket GLMs. Does anyone know of any other sources for rebuilts?
 
Fixed!

Thanks again to everyone for your advice. As it turned out, the upper portion of the drive was the source of the problem. The upper was seized up but the lower was fine. Fortunately, a family friend who owns a marina had a customer with the exact drive I needed off a boat with a ruined engine so I bought it for $1000 and I'm back in the water:banana:. I'm probaby going to have my old drive refurbed in the off season and either keep it as a spare or sell it. Enjoy the rest of the summer everyone.
 
You made the right choice. If you do rebuild your broken drive, you have to have the lower done as well. If the upper seized, there will be metal debris in the lower as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top