Hypothetical Sterndrive question - total rebuild

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kashurst

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Lot of talk about sterndrives etc. I'm not anti them just wary as they can catch you out.
Just hypothetically, if I was buying an 10 - 20 year old stern drive boat, rather than fix things as they happen I would want to have the following work done, then hopefully forget about them apart from annual/biannual servicing:
strip and completely rebuild both legs, replace every seal, all clutches, replace any part looking a bit past its best
new bellows, gaiters
new Universal joints
new Gear sector cables
new hydraulic rams
assess the trim pump and valves

anyone able to give me an approximate cost to do all that?
 
I think you're probably better off buying a new unit with a warranty rather than paying for a total rebuild, but it does depend what you're going to replace on the drive as part of the rebuild, and what drive you're talking about. Something as ubiquitous as a merc alpha 1 can be had quite cheap as a new unit.

Cables, bellows, gaiters and seals should all be replaced at various intervals of the service schedule, so it depends when they were last done as to whether its worth doing them all again anyway.
 
I think if you have paper work showing that the previous owner has maintained the drives correctly then there should be little to worry about.
 
Marinepartseurope.com will give a good idea but my advice is dont chase the rabbit down the hole if the drives are damaged. I have over the last 4 years just done that and I can assure you the sum of parts does not equal the whole. Replace what is needed but if the drives are knackered replace. By and large many of the items you have specified are maintenance items and will need periodic replacement anyway.
Entire Pumps IIRC can be got for the 250 mark each (dont bother with just valves. I have never heard of a success story)
Rams are ~500 each
Not sure on UJ joints as never had or heard much about them giving problems
To rebuild my lower end on one drive plus a clutch on the other came to about 4k. Basically if there is any internal damage or gear wear I'd seriously consider buying new in hindsight.
the rest of the items are service items and you can budget about 300 per drive plus labour.

edited to specify gear wear
 
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thanks for the answers so far
It might help if I explain my reason for asking the question. There are quite a few "bargain" outdrive boats for sale where the owner has clearly fallen out of love or run out of money so they sit there unused for years festering. So little/no history to go on. So its very much buyer beware but at a lower price.

Inboard diesel engines in the med seem quite happy left to their own devices for years without turning over, no risk of frost damage. So the engine work potentially is a strip and clean out all the cooling system and check for damaged cores, a proper deep service and possibly an injector refurb and a pair of turbos. All pretty straight forward

I am trying to get a feel for what it would cost to seriously renovate the outdrive system and recover the boat to a decent reliable and known condition and avoid a nasty surprise at the next lift out and/or leaky rams mid season or slipping clutches and sticking selectors.

Mercruiser outdrive assemblies appear to be a lot cheaper than volvos. What are the advantages of volvo drives V mercruisers?
 
I’m on holiday Kevin at the moment, if it’s a serious question regarding a possible purchase I’ll put some figures to you in a week. Are we talking DPE or DPH as you mentioned steering rams.
 
Mercruiser parts are dirt cheap compared to volvo penta. You obviously won't find a mercruiser drive mated to a volvo penta engine though, or vice versa.

Mercuiser alpha 1 drives are as simple as they come, possibly some might consider them to be a bit agricultural, but I quite liked the one I had, it did the job without complication.

The vp drive(dph) I now have is much more refined in operation, but the parts are a lot more expensive. The main issue with the dph drive is that the steering rams fail every few years, they're not too expensive to replace these days, I think they're 200 quid per ram and there are 2 rams per drive.
 
BruceK said:
Marinepartseurope.com will give a good idea but my advice is dont chase the rabbit down the hole if the drives are damaged. I have over the last 4 years just done that and I can assure you the sum of parts does not equal the whole. Replace what is needed but if the drives are knackered replace. By and large many of the items you have specified are maintenance items and will need periodic replacement anyway.
Entire Pumps IIRC can be got for the 250 mark each (dont bother with just valves. I have never heard of a success story)
Rams are ~500 each
Not sure on UJ joints as never had or heard much about them giving problems
To rebuild my lower end on one drive plus a clutch on the other came to about 4k. Basically if there is any internal damage or gear wear I'd seriously consider buying new in hindsight.
the rest of the items are service items and you can budget about 300 per drive plus labour.

edited to specify gear wear
Click to expand...

Problem is that a new pair of DPE's for me would be the thick end of £20k so unless the boat is a keeper for life, Id never recoup it.

Actually, I don't think I have ever heard of a drive becoming to worn out that it's beyond economic repair.

The other alternative to a thorough rebuild is a recon drive from IVSS or Coastal Rides. I can't recall ever seeing a list of the parts that they replace so this would appear to be a bit of a gamble too. But I dare say that IVSS would have the skills to strip down and assess your own drive and have the skills to determine the condition and life left in all of the crucial parts.
 
petem said:
Problem is that a new pair of DPE's for me would be the thick end of £20k so unless the boat is a keeper for life, Id never recoup it.

Actually, I don't think I have ever heard of a drive becoming to worn out that it's beyond economic repair.

The other alternative to a thorough rebuild is a recon drive from IVSS or Coastal Rides. I can't recall ever seeing a list of the parts that they replace so this would appear to be a bit of a gamble too. But I dare say that IVSS would have the skills to strip down and assess your own drive and have the skills to determine the condition and life left in all of the crucial parts.
Click to expand...

In 4 years I have pumped in the thick end of 20k into the drives chasing the rabbit down the hole. Trust me, the 3 k here, the 3k there, the 6 k then. These things add up very quickly. And before you know it you are eyeballing the dealer wondering if maybe if they had been upfront from the beginning you might have dug a little deeper in your pockets and at least got a better warrantee out of the deal.
 
Thanks for the replies, VP - it is entirely hypothetical - just trying to get a feel for what the potential costs are to get an outdrive boat to a known condition and hopefully reliable.
There are loads of neglected targa style boats in the med with KADs and drives so curious to find out what a "bargain" really means.
 
kashurst said:
Thanks for the replies, VP - it is entirely hypothetical - just trying to get a feel for what the potential costs are to get an outdrive boat to a known condition and hopefully reliable.
There are loads of neglected targa style boats in the med with KADs and drives so curious to find out what a "bargain" really means.
Click to expand...

I’m in Ibiza looking but not seen a bargain yet
 
kashurst said:
Thanks for the replies, VP - it is entirely hypothetical - just trying to get a feel for what the potential costs are to get an outdrive boat to a known condition and hopefully reliable.
There are loads of neglected targa style boats in the med with KADs and drives so curious to find out what a "bargain" really means.
Click to expand...

I have to add mine had suffered a lot of damage from electrolyses. One of the things I needed to replace was a lower gearbox case and have another rebuilt back up. Also it would be fair to say that my outdrives never get a chance to stop working being in a river estuary that flows 3knts+ So either the engine is driving them or the tide is. I'd tentatively say that provided they hadn't suffered electrolysis from a lack of anodes sitting idle and unused should not degrade them.
 
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