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Alpha 1 went boom!!

J

jamestorque9

New member
I was out on the lake today cruising along and a little bass boat looked like he was wanting to race. I was cruising at around 40mph and rolled on the throttle. Only about 5 seconds into accelerating my engine suddenly reved really high and I lost all power. Came to a stop and it wouldnt move in forward or reverse. No grinding noise or anything just felt like it was in neutral. Got towed in and noticed some gear oil in my bilge but no sign of an external leak.

Pulled the top cover off of the alpha and the upper gears look fine, but the oil was milky so it seams that water had gotten in there. When I put it in reverse and spin the prop I can hear grinding and the gears in the upper section are not moving.

So any ideas on what caused this? I am thinking the water had something to do with it. How should I go about fixing this? New lower section complete? Just replace what broke? Not sure what to do.
 
Your cheapest route will be http://www.sterndrive.cc/ They are very cost effective units and carry a 3 year no fault warranty to cover if this happens again. I ran 500hp to mine and only issue I had was a seal go bad. I shipped it back to them and they tore down, inspected, and resealed the entire unit at no cost to me.
 
So I pulled the lower unit off and the drive shaft snapped at the bottom right at the splines. Should I replace the entire drive or just a new drive shaft? It seems like the gears are still ok. I am not sure if the water getting into the oil caused any more damage or not.

Drive shaft is only about 300 bucks and a new drive is 1300
 
I thought about buying an SEI Alpha replacement drive for mine, but I read they will not warranty the drive in applications over 300hp, something to keep in mind. When the time comes for a re-power, I'm not staying with the stock 260hp, thats for sure. But, the price is right, 1300 isn't bad at all, I just wonder if "you get what you pay for". Anyway, how old is your drive James? Might not be a bad idea to either replace or completely go thru your current drive. I'd like to know the price difference between a full rebuild or a new SEI drive, which is more cost effective?
 
As far as know it's the original 1984 drive. Boat doesn't have an hour meter on it so hours are unknown. I'm going to ask some shops about a rebuild but the sei drive seems like it will be much cheaper. I'm only 3K into this boat but that number keeps going up. I was wanting to do a bravo swap at some point. Don't really have money for that right now though.
 
I replaced the eluders alpha with a sei 3 years ago. No problems at all. 400sbc world product heads with 202 valves crane cam & roller rockers,team g intake & pink rods. Spins a 27" mirage plus to over 5000.
 
CheckmateFever said:
I thought about buying an SEI Alpha replacement drive for mine, but I read they will not warranty the drive in applications over 300hp, something to keep in mind. When the time comes for a re-power, I'm not staying with the stock 260hp, thats for sure. But, the price is right, 1300 isn't bad at all, I just wonder if "you get what you pay for". Anyway, how old is your drive James? Might not be a bad idea to either replace or completely go thru your current drive. I'd like to know the price difference between a full rebuild or a new SEI drive, which is more cost effective?
Click to expand...
Jason, not true. They covered mine with truly no questions asked. The marina has had to send a couple back (one was impact and lower was 90% gone) and without question, they repaired or replaced them! :thumb:
 
Thanks Brian, good to know! I was just going by what their website said, but really how would they know what engine is in your boat anyway. Do you have any idea what a full drive overhaul would cost? My guess would be more than 1300 when you factor in labor, still curious tho.
 
Doesn't look like any damage. The drive shaft broke at the base . In the lower unit. The upper looks fine but when it broke it leaked gear oil into the bilge area.
 
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