Outdrive dropped over the winter...?

[cgentile]

Okay
So i get the boat out of storage and notice the outdrive has dropped down.
There is a redish orange fluid about a cup in the bilge. sweet smelling going to guess power steering fluid.
Thoughts on were to start looking and the guilty party ..part wise.
When i looked around you can not see anything leaking that is obvious..
which makes me think this is going to be a pain to fix..ugh!

sweet 16 alpha one drive 4.3
Regards
Christopher

[craigdskilling]

did you flush the power steering cooler with antifreeze.

[MOP]

Sweet smelling usually antifreeze, reddish steering fluid. Sounds like craigdskilling may have called it!

[Pismo]

did you flush the power steering cooler with antifreeze.

Agreed, look there first. Easy fix too fortunately.

[craigdskilling]

You only have to do it once to find it out the hard way.No biggie bud.

[gcarter]

I guess I'm confused.....
He said the drive dropped, but the guess is power steering!!!!!
How can that be?
It sounds like the trim pump or hoses to me.
Or can someone explain???

[Phil S]

I think he may have two issues.....possibly a broken p-steering fluid cooler, AND a slow leak-down on his hydraulics. The power steering fluid cooler is not a hard fix at all. I'm chasing a slow leak-down on mine and can't seem to fix / find the problem.

Phil S.

[Fishermanjm]

where is the ps cooler located? i didnt do anythin special with mine ,,, then agin i didnt know there was one, does that get cooled with the engine running or is it a seperate cooler?

[Phil S]

Can't speak to location on all coolers, but mine is located at the rear of the engine and it is an "in-line" type cooler with the water line supply coming from the outdrive. It's about the size of Coke can. The way I winterize mine is to remove the hose that leads from the cooler to the t-stat housing area and pour anti-freeze through the line until the antifreeze comes out of the outdrive.

If it has split open from being frozen, you will have water accumulating in your bilge while the engine is running !! It's a very simple repair job though and fairly inexpensive part.

GC...I agree, I'm not sure why power steering fluid in the bilge would be associated with causing a leak-down on the hydraulics....that's why I think he may have two un-related issues going on here. Unless the fluid he describes is actually hydraulic fluid and not p-steering fluid, which would then make more sense to me.

Side-bar....I thought it was better to store the drive down for long periods of storage. Mine leaks down after about 3 days...with no signs of any leak or loss of fluid ! I guess that means internals on the pump are bad.

With kind regards,

Phil S.

[silverghost]

I'm with George here in guessing this might be a trim/tilt system leak issue.
Axel, our GT-21 Donzi friend from Germany, is now going through a very similar issue with his outdrive now slowly dropping after long-term winter storage.
Check your trim pump, the trim pump's valves, & trim hose assemblys & related fittings.

[axelkloehn]

I'm with George here in guessing this might be a trim/tilt system leak issue.
Axel, our GT-21 Donzi friend from Germany, is now going through a very similar issue with his outdrive now slowly dropping after long-term winter storage.
Check your trim pump, the trim pump's valves, & trim hose assemblys & related fittings.

...yep, both trimcylinders were leaking. Damn stupid, had the drive up during winter, so the pushrods had little tracks of corrosion, polished the pushrods, everything fine again! That was an easy fix.
Under my powersteering-cooler are also 2-4 drops of ATF sometimes, haven't figured where this comes from. Both hoses and screw clamps are absolutely tight. Not happening under pressure, just after 1-2 weeks storage... Good luck and hope you find out soon!

[cgentile]

Thanks for the info..
The boat has a guy that takes care of it for winter lay up & service through out the year, and he is very good and has serviced it for 6 years now.

The liquid is a reddish orange ... more orange.. but will have him check it out , but nice to hear the possible causes.. and be inform to things to look for.

The trim pump and everything lines and such all seem clean and the only source of liquid is in the very bottom of the bilge ,
I may have been premature in the sweet smell, pretty sure it is not antifreeze.

Will let you know the out come... thanks again for the info.

c
Toronto Canada

[RedDog]

When a boat is stored, the drive should be left in the down position to avoid stresses on the u-joint bellows. Leaving it up will result in premature failure of the bellows

[craigdskilling]

Hey cgentile i am from Kitchener.Where do you do your boating.There's a few from around here.craig

[joseph m. hahnl]

When a boat is stored, the drive should be left in the down position to avoid stresses on the u-joint bellows. Leaving it up will result in premature failure of the bellows

To reiterate:The drive should only be up for trailering. Best left down at all times.

check the level in the trim pump