Hot leg

[fish2relax]

Morning all,

Last weekend went out wide and for the first time had some one else driving whilst i was sitting at the rer f the boat.

Thought that the leg sounded like it had a whine of some sort. Asking others who are usually down the back all other trips if it was out of the norm and they said it has always sounded like that.

So I placed my hand on the top of the leg ( alpha 1 ) and onto the coverplate that it held with 4 of bolts and it was very hot. Could not leave my hand on that plate for more than 3 seconds!!

The side of the leg felt fine, it was just the plate.

Boat was running at 20knt for an hour so dropped of the plane and it cooled down, took of and checked 15minute lter and it was hot again.

Boat was last serviced at 80 hours and having just bought it I had a major service done dropping the leg off etc and giving it a full going over.

Since thn I have done 50 hours to date. Only other point I note is that the gear drive oil resevoir has used about 100ml in that time.

Motor is a 1.7lt mercruiser / cummins deisel.

Is he tempreture of this plate excessive or normal? Always had outboards. Service departmnt that I deal with is closed today to have it looked at.

Regards,

Ben

[Testlab]

I have owned several merc sterndrives over the years and a bit of whine is not unusual. It sounds like you are operating at continuous higher power settings so the top of the leg can get quite hot because the oil circulation in the leg has a splash lube system at the top. The transmission oil is cooled by conduction through the housing and into the surrounding water. Of course the top of the leg is above water so it does not cool off like the rest of it.

Heat is the enemy of sterndrives so I suggest looking into a drive shower. Being too hot touch as you describe is probably the high end of normal as by my experience, but really check with a well experienced outdrive mechanic.