Help! Broken line? 97' 200.

[Mbrockman5]

I apologize for the length...Please bear with me on this...

I have a 1997 Cobalt 200 with the 5.7L EFI and Mercruiser Alpha One.

I took the family out to the lake this weekend to get some relief from this California heat wave crap... When I was prepping to launch, I made sure all of the fluids and everything were checked and topped off before backing down the ramp...

Once it was in the water, it started right up, sounded perfect, and was purring like a kitten. After running great for roughly 30 minutes or so, the alarm started screaming at me so I immediately shut it down to investigate. When I popped the hatch I saw my Drive Oil Reservoir was 99% empty, so I grabbed the bottle of Gear Lube, topped it off, closed it all up, and started the motor to resume tubing.....

That's when things started to take a turn... There was a pretty bad vibration from the lower unit that was shaking the boat and I could hear something wasn't right. I shut it off, waited a few minutes, and tried it again with the same result.

Luckily, we were only about 200-300 yards from the bank we were set up on, so I limped to shore at a snail's pace making sure not to cause any serious damage. My father in law and I started looking around and noticed a line was disconnected and dangling from the back of the lower unit.

I have no idea what the line is for. I'm assuming it supplies the drive oil to the lower unit, but I'm hoping you guys can give me some insight or ideas of what I can do or what my options are. I just bought this dang boat 10 days ago and I want to enjoy it as much as possible before the season is over

Any ideas on what this line is, how hard it would be to fix, and should I be concerned?

Thank you ahead of time, everyone, for your input and help.

-Mike.

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[Big Block Power]

That's the drive oil reservoir line. Just Google it you will find a bunch of info on it.
It looks like that drive has seen a few rocks or 2.

[Mbrockman5]

Ok. Thanks for the picture...

-Is this something that can be easily replaced?

-Is it supposed to "snap" or screw in place? It feels like I can push it in, but it doesn't take much effort at all to septate it. When I tried at the lake, it seemed to reconnect but still didn't seem to be supplying drive oil to the lower unit as the knocking sound and vibration was still present during my initial try...

[Big Block Power]

It snaps in place. Google alpha drive reservoir line and you will see what pops up. Hopefully you didn't stuck up water into the drive oil. I would check the drive oil condition. Knocking is not a good sound to hear like hearing landing gear on a plane knock. That's a good knock to hear

[Mbrockman5]

Well... I took the boat in today and it looks like it's gonna need a new drive. There's metal particles all over inside as well as some small chunks from the gear teeth and they said the bearings have needed to be replaced for awhile.

Apparently, it hasn't been getting sufficient oil supply for some time and has been slowly breaking down before it finally had enough and tore itself up.

The estimate I was quoted for a replacement drive and new bearings will be between $1500 for generic and $3000 for Mercruiser.

Does this sound about right, cost wise?

[Holy Smokes]

Sounds about right for replacement. Also, may have them check if rebuilding your existing drive with new gears & bearings is an option.

[Mbrockman5]

Holy Smokes... That was the first thing I asked about. The labor and time involved with rebuilding would have cost more than just replacing it with a new drive. They're going to replace the Outdrive, Gimbal Bearing, and all the gaskets/seals for a grand total of about $2250 (+/-)...

[akorcovelos]

Get an SEI drive, half what Mercruiser wants, great warranty, and awesome customer service.

[Mbrockman5]

I talked to the mechanic yesterday and it's getting replaced with an SEI. He said all of the other parts (seals, gimbal bearing, etc) are already there, but because of all this COVID crap, the drive won't be delivered for 2 weeks (instead of the usual 4-5 days). On the plus side, he let me take it home until then so my boat won't have to sit outside uncovered and be subject to this endless: Heat/Sun/Thunder & Lightning/Rain/Smoke & Ash.... (Frickin Northern California weather...I hate it here)

[akorcovelos]

You’ll be happy with the SEI drive. I had an SEI106 on my last boat and it survived 2000+ hours of wakeboarding and general abuse, lol.

[Mbrockman5]

Sweet, I can't wait for it to be fixed. I'm dying to get back out and play with my new toy (Albeit, a little more cautious and more aware of it all)

I noticed SEI's "3 year Unlimited/Faultless" warranty is far better than Merc's "1 year limited" warranty. I figure you can't really go wrong when a company says "You can run over a log, Tangle up the prop with rope or fishing line, or even run it without oil, and we'll replace it for free for 3 years"... Granted I have absolutely no plans to do any of those after this fiasco...

[Mbrockman5]

I just got my 97' 200 back from the shop today where they replaced the Merc. Alpha 1/Gen 2 outdrive with a brand new SEI Outdrive, as well as a new gimbal bearing...


I went straight from the shop to the closest lake (Collin's Lake, in northern CA) to give it a try. I know there's a break-in procedure/process, so I just took it easy and kept it between 1k and 2k rpm while I just sputtered around for a couple hours.

Everything was feeling fine... Except for when I would make tight turns. Then I'd hear a noticable "Clicking" noise. It stops when I straighten out and wide turns are fine, but it would start clicking every time I make any sort of relatively tight turns.

Has anyone else experienced this, or know what might be causing it?

[akorcovelos]

I assume the drive came with new u-joints? That’s usually the culprit with clicking when turning.

[Mbrockman5]

From what the mechanic told me, the SEI Outdrives come with new, factory installed, U joints... Hopefully it'll all get worked out since boating season is coming to a close.