Ordered new 106 on Tues-Received on Fri

[crouchleyke]

ok guys I have been a doughting Thomas on SDE but its my turn to call it like I see it- so hang on to your shorts!!

My old drive blew up last Friday- I have been considering this day for some time but I decided to go with SDE. I ordered on Tuesday and the drive (top and bottom) arrived on Friday as promised. The packing was great and the boxes were in good shape too. No complaints there. Upon inspection every thing looked pretty good- paint finish looked good too. I spent the rest of the afternoon assembling the drives. The only nit I found was that they were slopply greasing the new joints. They grease the new joints before they leave they factory but I saw a lot of grease on the outside of the zerk and none coming out of the joint (like the second joint). Seems they missed on the zerk and didnt get any grease in, but the joint still had the factory grease in it-not that big of a deal. I bought their install kit which is big time lame for 55 bucks- 12 nuts and the brass shifter and gasket kit. They dont even give you the washers needed to bolt the drive to the bell housing-shame on them! The two units went together fine so no complaints there.

[crouchleyke]

Day 2

ok ready to put the drive on. Except for stealing the washers off the old drive -no problems. I have had gasket problems in the past between the drive and the bell housing but I was very happy to see that the SDE casting was about 25% thicker in my problem area on the shift shaft. The old mercruiser thickness was about .210 inch. The SDE thickness was .270 inch. So I was very happy about that! The drive is on and I am ready for the trailer test!

[crouchleyke]

Day 2 1/2

I fired her up. After reading all about the noise that they make that is the first thing I went after. Actually it was not that bad. I describe it as "white noise" not the "bad" gear noise (whine)as some desribe it. But certainly more than OEM. I checked the shifting operation and it was same as my old drive- no difference. When I did put it into forward or reverse I got this thumping noise- it was slower in frequency than the prop shaft so I treated it with a grain of salt. Turns out I made a good call on that one- in the water it was fine. What I did find was the top cap on the upper unit was warm- this was cause for concern as my old unit never produced heat there- ofcourse my old unit blew up too! The real test is tomorrow. .......

[crouchleyke]

Day 3

In the water. Everything seems fine except all these new noises at different speeds. I follow the break-in procedure and after 5 hours a lot of the noise is gone. Only at certain RPMs (800 and 2600) do I hear something different. If it continues at this rate it should be fine after 10 hours of break in. After 5 hours of running I come in and drain the oil. Lots of filings in the oil! But no water. I called SDE and they say that it is normal. Kinda scary but considering what I took out after a year with my old drive I think It is within par. It is more metal than my old annual dose. What does trouble me after 5 hours is the heat coming from the top bearing. Once I got 5 hours, in I was able to get the boat on a plane and unsubmerge the drive. The top bearing got so hot after 2 minutes that I could not hold my hand on it-probably about 140 degrees. Again they say it is normal. We will find out! Stand by for day 4.

[crouchleyke]

Day 4

Pretty uneventful! I put another 5 hours on the drive. I have cleared the break-in hurdle. After the second five hours I cant really say the noise has changed a whole lot, but it does seem/sound reasonable. The upper unit bearing cap is still getting warm when not submerged but I dont think it was as bad as the first 5 hours. When up on a plane (unsubmerged) I could hold my hand on the the cap for about a minute which is better than before. After the second five hours I have changed the oil again. Slightly less metal in the oil. There is still that "liquid gold" look to the oil but the number of larger pieces was less. The magnet pick up just a bit less than before. The next phase will be to get some extended cruise time on her.

[crouchleyke]

day 5

Just got 15 hours on the drive and I am going to trailer the boat. I had the boat in the water for an extended weekend. When I got the boat on the trailer I checked the oil in the drive. Oh no its got water in it! I drained the drive and called SE first thing in the morning. They asked if I made sure the plug gaskets where in place. I was 99% sure they were. They asked if I could do a pressure test on the drive to find the problem. That way if I could find the problem (upper or lower) I would only have to ship one half back to them for repair. Long story short, I did the pressure test and I immediately found the problem. The gasket was missing on the lower plug. It is very hard to see the gasket! The counter bore for the plug is also painted black so it looks like the gasket is in the bore. I had spare gaskets so it was no problem. Changed the oil and I was back in business. I look back at this chapter and can’t help but think that such a simple problem can cause a lot of damage. The automobile industry learned its lesson many years ago and started equipping oil drain plugs with gaskets that stay with the plug-a great idea! I believe I ran across some of those types of gaskets in a previous drive that I owned. I tried to find them for the Merc some time ago but ended up with the cheap fiber ones.