I've got all the parts in now. The drive shower got here today. Now I can begin to get this thing back together. The lake levels are getting so low that after I get finished I may have to leave the boat on the trailer. The water may be to low to get the boat into the dock. The lakes are lowered for hurricane season and this year they have gone a little overboard plus there hasbeen almost no rain for over a month.
Problem with my Alpha one
- Thread starter 206LSdrvr
- Start date
aquaforce said:206lsdrvr
What gear ratio did you have in that Alpha??
I just took the Alpha Gen1 off my 242 and it has something like 1;36 or 1;32. I have a bravo on the way so the Alpha is going to get sold.
Kinda late to help you huh.
I thought I had a 1:32 gear, but after counting the teeth it appears to be a 1:50. THe SEI upper I bought has 1:47 gears. Mercruiser did use 1:32 gears with the 454CID engines in the Gen.1 Alphas. This brings up more questions that I had in another thread. I was trying to determine my prop slip on that one. I'm going start retesting on that when I get this thing back together.
Mercury racing told me that slip was less of a factor on a smooth hull. The relief hull has more problems which caused the need for the new maximus prop.
I'm going to run 1:65 in my Bravo. That is supposed to be enough gear that I could run the Maximus if I want to. I'm very curious.
It should make a lot of power and I can run a bigger prop.
I'm going to run 1:65 in my Bravo. That is supposed to be enough gear that I could run the Maximus if I want to. I'm very curious.
It should make a lot of power and I can run a bigger prop.
I've run two props on my 206. The best performer overall is a Laser 2, three blade, 19p. The other is a Mirage + also 19p. At speeds above about 52 mph the boat gets unstable with the drive trimmed out. Trim it down and the boat stabilizes, but I loose speed. I suspect that the M+ has too much stern lift for my boat. With the Laser I don't have that problem. I can run faster and don't have to trim the drive all the way out. You might want to take a look at a Bravo !. You will more than likely be able to run a higher pitch than with the Maximus at the same rpm. I would try as many props as I could and see what works best.
I hope you have good luck with the SEI upper. There's a guy on Oso that had two SEI's grenade withing ten hours of each other. I have a friend who runs on Lake Eustis, who has a Donzi Minx, that trashed his Alpha. He replaced it with an SEI. He said it sounded funny the first ten hours, but he thought it might just be his imagination. This guy is a perfectionist. He's had no trouble with the drive since he installed it, but he did blow a coupler. He said the only difference he could see in the drives, was that the SEI's didn't have nearly as good a paint job on them.
You may have seen him around, it's the only Donzi I've ever seen with a red rubrail. Stop him and ask him about the drive if you see him. He'll be glad to talk to you. His name is George.
He said the only difference he could see in the drives, was that the SEI's didn't have nearly as good a paint job on them.You may have seen him around, it's the only Donzi I've ever seen with a red rubrail. Stop him and ask him about the drive if you see him. He'll be glad to talk to you. His name is George.
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Cuda,
Did the guy on OSO have any problems getting the warranty honored from SEI? I have thought about that myself as the price on these units are so low compared to Merc. I think I am going to rebuild my old upper to keep as a spare. your friend was right about the finish not being as good as on the Merc.
I'm not sure but I think I've seen your buddy's Donzi before out on Eustis.
I was sorry to hear about the F20. You've done a lot of work on that boat. Hope you can find it a good home.
Did the guy on OSO have any problems getting the warranty honored from SEI? I have thought about that myself as the price on these units are so low compared to Merc. I think I am going to rebuild my old upper to keep as a spare. your friend was right about the finish not being as good as on the Merc.
I'm not sure but I think I've seen your buddy's Donzi before out on Eustis.
I was sorry to hear about the F20. You've done a lot of work on that boat. Hope you can find it a good home.
Cuda, I went to OSO and found the thread you were talking about. It seems he was having problems with the lowers. Still it doesn't sound good. I'll have to see if the upper holds together. I'm still flushing my lower out. It looks like I've managed to get most of the metal out, but I'm going to run some more oil through it before I put it back on the boat. I had just replaced that last fall. It would be a bummer to lose it.
I'm having a problem getting the new upper installed. It slides into the bellhousing so far and then stops. I thought at first that it was not lining up with the splines in the coupler, but I don't think it's getting all the way in to the coupler. Maybe one of the u-joints is hanging up somewhere? Anybody had any experience with this? I did take my old drive shaft and tried it to make sure alignment was correct since I had replaced the gimbal bearing and that was ok.
That was my original thought until I slid the drive shaft from my other upper into place. with a slight twist to align the splines td went right in. My only other thought is that it may be hanging up on the round gasket inside the bell housing. In any case it's been a real pain.Castines said:
After crawling into the engine compartment and getting around the engine so that I could see the driveshaft and coupler. I turned the engine over and it is engaged with the splines in the coupler. I have emailed SEI and htey suggested that I remove one of the o-rings on the shaft to see if it let the upper get closer to seating. No luck. Emailed them this morning and they aske me to check to see if the old gimbal bearing will slide onto the new shaft. Going to try that tomorrow.
Well I think I have finally figured out why I couldn't get my new driveshaft housing in place. I've got to realign the engine and new gimbal bearing. I bought an alignment tool from BAM and now all I have to do is get things lined up. I have been messing around with this thing off and on for 2 weeks. Now maybe I can get this wound up and go boating. Never dawned on me until this past weekend that that could be the problem. DUH!!!
Finally got everything put back together today. The Merc. lower unit fit perfectly to the SEI upper. Got the Simrek driveshower on and that was a snap. All I have left to do is add the gear oil, put the muffs on and make sure every thing is working correctly and put the boat back in the water. ;D
Cuda said:I hope you have good luck with the SEI upper. There's a guy on Oso that had two SEI's grenade withing ten hours of each other. I have a friend who runs on Lake Eustis, who has a Donzi Minx, that trashed his Alpha. He replaced it with an SEI. He said it sounded funny the first ten hours, but he thought it might just be his imagination. This guy is a perfectionist. He's had no trouble with the drive since he installed it, but he did blow a coupler.
You may have seen him around, it's the only Donzi I've ever seen with a red rubrail. Stop him and ask him about the drive if you see him. He'll be glad to talk to you. His name is George.
I started mine on the trailer today with the muffs on. Your freind is right it does make a funny noise. Also noticed that the top of the housing got warm. I guess the noise will go away after the gears get properly seated. I may have done the right thing putting on the drive shower. If the gears are getting warm at idle I hate to think what it would be like with the boat on plane.
I want to change the engine oil and filter while I have it out so I'm shooting for a Monday launch date. Less traffic at the ramp.He was also right about the paint. Not good.