My SEI exp going on drive 3 in 3 years!

[bajaforce200]

I got my First drive 3 years ago and had it installed by a pro broke it in as Instructed and everything was great first year. I did not use it much the first year about 50 hours today. Seconed year About 50 hours again. The Third year I finally was home some more as I am an OTR Truck Driver and prob put 150 hours on that year and could not be happier until about a week before my 3 year warranty was up the outdrive let go while in the middle of the river and had to be towed to the dock and wait a week for the marina to get it out of the water and another week for them to look at it. I contacted Ryan at SEI warrany dept and at first he said sorry to bad but later that afternoon I was told ship it in we will take care of that and i could not be happier that a company was actually standing behind their product. They send me a new lower unit and a rebuilt uppper. I could not be happier the guy docking next to me asked me what i thought of a local marina selling used drives and i told him for just a few hundred more call SEI and get a brand new one and i am not 100% sure if he did or not but he said he was going to. I had my new drive they sent me installed my a Marine Mech just to make sure everything was 100% installed correctly. I paid a couple hundred bucks for this out of my pocket even though it was under warranty but atleast I know it was done right. So today I hit the 6 hour mark with my seconed outdrive from SEI and its slipping like crazy. The boat wont go over 10 mph. I kinda thought it was acting up from the word go cause I was having a hard time getting the bow to drop down and get the boat on plane but I just told my self that is just because your not giving it full power cause I am still breaking it in. Just Paid my Marine Mech another 60 bucks to come down and take it for a ride just to make sure its not a coupler or something and its def the drive. Now my 3 years is up but they gave me this drive in the fall of last year under warranty (live in Pittsburgh) so i could not use it until last weekend and its junk already. I have not contacted them but will be sending an email to Ryan again in a few min to see what he says they are going to do and I will let you guys all know what if anything they do to stand behind this drive they sent me that I only have 6 hours on. I will say even though this will be my third drive in 3 years when I did contact Ryan by email he was very nice answered all my ridic questions and helped me out all thru email as I cant make calls during their business hours and was never ignored like other companys will do. Here is to hoping for the best.

[admin]

I am sorry you are having an issue. Based on your description, it really sounds like the engine coupler or the prop hub has let go.

It sounds like you are able to get the boat up to about 10 mph, then the rpms surge up, but the boat doesn't go any faster and it does it repeatedly? There is nothing in the drive that would do that repeatedly. If the gears failed, the first time it slipped, that would be it. Likewise for the clutch, if it for some reason lost the clutch teeth, it will never engage again.

I would recommend trying a different prop. The coupler is a little harder to confirm. Depending on the style, you may be able to mark the coupler and the shaft, take it for a run fast enough to cause the slipping and then see if the marks still line up. Also, depending on how it fails, you might get a burning rubber smell. As a last resort, you could have someone watch the shaft while underway and see if it appears that the driveshaft is moving slower than the coupler.

Our warranty is 3 years, and fault free, which in this industry is very generous. The warranty is from the original date of purchase, so at this point it sounds like you are probably 9 months out of warranty. In your case it really does not sound like a drive issue, so please check the prop and coupler.

Tech Support

[admin]

You didn't mention before that you checked the plug and found a bunch of metal filings. Please email a picture to warranty@sterndrive.cc so we can take a look at it.

Tech Support

[admin]

We received your drive back and pulled it apart to inspect it. There is absolutely nothing wrong inside. It looks exactly like I would expect a 6 hour drive to look like.

Your complaint is that something slips when you get up around 10MPH. As discussed on the phone, it really can't be the drive. If something slips in the drive, it will do it once, and then it will never work again.

An engine coupler or a prop will cause the exact symptoms that you are complaining about. As discussed on the phone, you claimed your mechanic put a different drive on, and the problem went away. If that is factual, then I would suggest that he used a different prop on the other drive.

I have attached some pictures showing all the critical parts of the drive. For the drive to have slipped, it would have to break some gear teeth, shaft or gear splines, or clutch teeth. As you can see in the pictures, there is no problem.

Tech Support

[roscottjr]

I agree with tech support. There is definately something going on either with your coupler or prop hub. If you are close to NW Georgia I would be happy to take a look at it for you.