TICafeRacer

Thanks. Is there any way to effectively prove the O ring issue?

I just found out another piece to the puzzle. My neighbor works at a marina. A different Marina. He’s in sales and they don’t handle boats over 30’. So he asked about the SEI warranty policy. Apparently, their rules are you take the drives off the boat pack them up and ship them back to SEI and then they inspect them and determine who’s at fault or what happened. So that answers a lot for me. If anyone has had a different experience please let me know.

TICafeRacer

So, here’s a follow up on the drive. As I mentioned above, when we returned the gear lube reservoir was down significantly. A guy who owned my boat previously said to fill it and run it and watch it because sometimes when they install a drive there is basically an air bubble. So, I fill it and go talk to the marina and mention the warranty. I meet up with the two guys who went to see the boat and they say they ended up filling the gear lube reservoir because it was down when they went to look at it. I then go home and effectively check all levels on everything again and find the gear lube is fine, but the power steering is low. So, we fill the power steering. After several rides in the boat, the gear lube hasn’t budged, but the power steering fluid goes down with every ride. So, I suspect the gear lube was the air bubble and happened coincidentally to the power steering issue. In the end, it must be the steering ram that I had originally thought might be the issue. Or that’s my best guess at this time.