OMC saildrive questions

[Chris Patterson]

To start with, what a crazy idea for a sailing boat. However, I've gotta work on one of these things soon, and with zero experience with a saildrive, holy crap. I KNOW the raw water impeller can not be under the boat. Surely. Anyway, I have searched until the mouse is tired, and can not seem to come up with ANY relevant information on the contraption, other than most people seem to dislike them. This boat was recently hauled and had an impeller put in, and now the owner said it leaks water inside of the boat. And he said it looks like there is oil in the water as well. I've not fired it up yet, because I wanted to research this thing a little, as most competent mechanics generally like to have a look at the funny papers before just blindly tearing it all to hell.

Chances are, I'll end up sitting him on the hill for a short short, because it needs a bottom paint, and a couple of thru-hulls repaired, but I SURE would like to run across some kind of online peek, at the very least, a parts diagram.

I doubt that I'll try and talk him into a repower, as I don't have the time to dedicate to all that anyway, although I'm sure a fuel burner would be the obvious cure. So, would anybody care to shoot me some RELEVANT information about the thing? Or a link of some kind?

And I'm utterly confident that some people love them, and others hate them, and all of that is fine. But it's not my boat, and MY opinion is not relevant anyway.

So any two stroke motorheads out there?

 

[kloudie1]

Chris, didn't know if you'd seen these:
http://www.crowleymarine.com/omc_sail_drive_parts.cfm
The parts catalog.. not as good as a manual but helpful.. The engine is the same as the 1977 OMC 25/35's I think.. and yes, it does look like the impeller is in the leg..
And http://dazusfb7pt2uv.cloudfront.net..._Drive/1978 Sail Drive 15s10S & G 388417.pdf
and someposts: http://forums.oday.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=110317

http://impliedconsent.us/impliedconsent/Zephyr_Saildrive.html

 

[Chris Patterson]

Well, thank you very much Kloudie. That is EXACTLY what I was looking for. The parts manual typically tells me all that I need to know about most mechanical apparatuses.

And you were right, (and as I suspected), the raw water pump impeller is in fact in the lower drive unit. I hate to sound disparaging, but who's bright idea could it have been to put a service item like that under the water line? Oh well, c'est la vie.

Yeah, I searched last night until exhaustion without ever finding anything close to this. Many thanks, Sir.

 

[kloudie1]

Ya welcome, Chris. I guess they had a pump that would fit.. ?? I don't know either why they didn't drive a raw water pump off the alternator belt..
Bombardier can still supply the power head parts, but I don't think that the lower unit castings are available .. Gears and seals are probably shared with other "pure" outboard's of the line up.. Good Luck !!

 

[Barnacle Bill]

I believe I have a service manual on the OMC Zephyr saildrive.

 

[Chris Patterson]

Bill, let me check with the owner of this boat, it'll be a few days before I get back to it. I've got two more smallish projects to wrap up before I get to him.
Did you have in mind selling this service manual?

 

[alexco38]

The newer design saildrive have a engine drive belt driven water pump and dip stick tube for the lower unit oil from inside the boat.

My friend's Hansa 33 does.

Not much you can do with gear oil but you could by pass the water pump in the lower unit by a engine belt driven impeller pump.

Your OMC probably just use an outboard lower unit. Not sure why they'll do that. May be someone bolted an outboard unit on. They may have similar bolt pattern. It make sense for manufacturer to use common parts for different products. You'll be surprise how many do.

 

[topcat0399]

The first time I ever worked on one of those I was in disbelief at the engineering of the impeller. Also the S2 that it was in had like 1.5 inches between the top of the engine and the cockpit floor. How do you even think about working on that without getting intimidated by the potential PIA to come and end up just selling the boat and dissing sail drives for evermore?


Our quick solution was to hook up a 12V switched water pump to the exterior hoses of the engine and go sailing. Still works a charm.

 

[Dan Johnson]

Chris...

Most likely the sail drive in question (if it's from the '70's period) is based on the OMC 9.9 hp two stroke powerhead. The saildrive portion is a custom fabrication that was fixed in a mounting hole in the hull bottom and utilized a rubber gasket ring for a seal. These units had a wiring sensor connection for an alarm warning should the seal fail.

Otherwise, the engine is the same as a Johnson/Evinrude 9.9 two stroke. Due to their limited access position, they were electric start with alternators. I may still have some reference materials from a '72 boat I had that had one originally installed but removed by a PO.

 

[Chris Patterson]

Any info much would be way appreciated. It sure doesn't look like the diesels or A4's I'm accustomed too. When I threw the cover off, and saw that alternator sitting on its end, I KNEW this was a different animal..

BTW, it is in a 70's something Oday, 'bout a 28 footer..

 

[Chris Patterson]

A pic..

 

[topcat0399]

That's the animal I had in mind. You have to pull the power head to get the lower unit down to change the impeller. I wouldn't hesitate to do it on the one pictured here; there's is actually some room between the engine and whatever is above it. The S2 I worked on had little clearance greatly complicating what should be a fairly simple maintenance job.

happy sails