Outdrive indicator gauge is now off

J

justgotaboat

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Joined
Jun 18, 2009
RO Number
31427
Messages
159
We had our outdrive rebuilt this winter because they found water in the oil and some other issues. Now the outdrive gauge on the dash does not read like it used to. When the outdrive is full down the gauge only reads 3/4 down. If you Bron g the outdrive up at all it gets erratic readings and then quickly jumps to off the gauge fully up (even though it is not) The outdrive works fine. Just the gauge showing it's position appears to be all messed up. It worked fine prior to the outdrive being off the boat last fall.

Are there any easy things to check before I call the mechanics back. I know it's something they should fix but if something easy (or even medium) difficulty i would rather try fixing it myself and not lose use of the boat for a few days. Any idea where that gauge gets it's reading from or how it reads.

It's a 2001 sea ray weekender 245 with a 383 stroker and bravo 3.

Thanks!!
 
A friend who is a professional mechanic tells me he always replaces the indicator and stop limit when the drive is off. They sit close to or below water and often fail.
 
Like Walter says, the drive indicator pucks have a looong history of failing. They've tried to make improvements over the years but like Walter said, they live in the water and are prone to failure.

What you have to do to calibrate them is drop the drive all the way, remove the trim sender side, have someone at the helm watching the gauge. You turn the protruding little gray thingy and turn it til your helper tells you the gauge shows fully down. Do this over a couple times so you both get the feeling of it. Sometimes you only have to loosen the little screws and turn the puck to show on the gauge.

Those screws have a tendency to get frozen and are prone to break and you have to grind the broken screw flush and drill and tap new holes. I've had to do them dozens of times. Put di-electric silicone grease in the new holes to prevent corrosion from locking up the new screws.
 
quote:
Originally posted by jtybt15

Like Walter says, the drive indicator pucks have a looong history of failing. They've tried to make improvements over the years but like Walter said, they live in the water and are prone to failure.

What you have to do to calibrate them is drop the drive all the way, remove the trim sender side, have someone at the helm watching the gauge. You turn the protruding little gray thingy and turn it til your helper tells you the gauge shows fully down. Do this over a couple times so you both get the feeling of it. Sometimes you only have to loosen the little screws and turn the puck to show on the gauge.

Those screws have a tendency to get frozen and are prone to break and you have to grind the broken screw flush and drill and tap new holes. I've had to do them dozens of times. Put di-electric silicone grease in the new holes to prevent corrosion from locking up the new screws.

Click to expand...


Besides further damaging the sensor, is there anything I can mess up if I try and adjust this myself? Are there any critical parts of the assembly or disassembly I need to take note of? And finally if I set the full down to be full down, will the rest work correspondingly? Or do I need to set “up” as well?

Thanks!!
 
You can't mess anything up - at least any worse than the gauge not working right. You just are just setting the bottom so the guage is at "down". Look at the doc I posted, it describes it step by step.
 
I've been called worse names than Walter...but having met Walter, I'll take it as a compliment! ;-)
 
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