OMC Zephyr SailDrive problem

[Daboosailing]

(The author of this thread moved this thread to this location, feeling it is a better place for it to be posted.

Last Friday we craned my boat into the water. When I powered it back to the slip (a period of running the engine for 5-7 minutes) I found water coming out to the engine compartment of my 1979 Mirage 27-2. The inflowing water slowed when I shut the engine down and I found that when I closed off the raw water intake, the in-flow stopped. This leads me to believe that the leak is from the raw water engine cooling system. With a mirror, I opened the valve up and started the engine again. I found a leak to be occurring at a gasket that I assume to be between the power-head and lower unit.

Has anyone had a similar occurrence with their OMC Zephyr Saildrive? If so, what was the fix?
I have both the OMC Zephyr Owners manual and the Service Manual for this engine.

Luckily there was another batch boats going in and so I craned mine out, as not being positive about my problem, it just seemed to make sense to take it out.

 

[Daboosailing]

888 viewers as of 5:42 this morning and no one has had a similar problem. I'd say that speaks to the quality of the OMC Saildrive. I have an engine guy coming to look at this this Saturday.

For winter storage, I open the engine coolant petcock by taking the petcock valve out of the threaded hole in the engine, allowing what ever water might remain in the engine, all winter long to drain out. I've owned this engine for 20 years and until this year never had a problem with this process. I can't say for certain that water did stay in and freeze over the winter; but, I don't know what else might have happened to cause this leak. My hopes are that the gasket between the powerhead and the adapter plate is all that was damaged and other then needing to separate the powerhead from the drive and install a new gasket that will be the extent of the work and parts needed. The other possibilities, may mean the end for this propulsion system.

 

[kloudie1]

Daboo, probably more so because not many of those units are left out there.. They are fine units but not a lot of folks understand them. Here is a good link for a parts diagram....
http://impliedconsent.us/impliedconsent/Documents_files/Sail Drive Parts - 15S10S and G - 1978.pdf

 

[Daboosailing]

Claude, thanks for the parts catalog! Now I have everything for my Zephyr, Owners Manual, Service Manual and Parts Catalog. Now if parts were only still available!

 

[caguy]

The other possibilities, may mean the end for this propulsion system.

I haven't responded because my Zephyr motor was under water for I'm guessing a year. The motor may be rebuildable. I seem to recollect the some of the parts are interchagable with other manufacturers. I did manage to find some parts on Ebay by putting in just the part number. At one time I was looking to replacing the power head with something else. My saildrive is in excellent shape. I did not have the time to investigate it fully at the time so went with a 18hp Tohatsu ob. The ob has served well and there is a ton of storage space where the motor once was.