Leak from transom shield

[Vincent3450]

Hi, I have a 1987 Santego. Just put it in the water for season and after couple of days someone at marina notice it was taking on water and it had it taken out. Water did not reach near top of engine or batteries. Water leaking from transom shield. Will have it pulled and everything checked out. If transom rotting that may be it
Hopefully just change gasket on transom. Boat needs some other work but basically sound and many new parts. Anyone with experience with this or has same boat or just want to say hello (and hope all goes ok). Thanks

[ColRon]

Is your Santego a 3067 with outdrives?

[Viper]

I'm assuming this is a sterndrive application? If so, what brand? I know many came with Volvo DP but have seen Mercs too.

[Vincent3450]

Source of the post Is your Santego a 3067 with outdrives?

I/O sterndrives with mercruisers

[Vincent3450]

Source of the post I'm assuming this is a sterndrive application? If so, what brand? I know many came with Volvo DP but have seen Mercs too.

Mercs

[Viper]

So there are a few places you could be taking on water. Could be from around the transom assembly which usually means a bad transom or through several areas in the transom assembly. On the inside of the transom, there are nuts all around the inner plate of the transom assembly. If you try to tighten those nuts and you actually can and get a couple of turns, chances are you're squeezing a saturated transom. Fingers crossed that's not the issue.

Some of the more common areas for water intrusion are; u-joint or shift cable bellows, gimbal ring upper swivel seal, gear lube fitting if applicable. If the leak is through the u-joint bellows, you want to get it out of the water asap or your u-joints will be sitting in water for a while which is not a good thing and can get pricey if the input shaft assembly has to be replaced due to corrosion.

Is this a salt water application?

[ColRon]

Vincent3450, Viper is right on target. Check your baffles. Since you already out and on the hard, shouldn’t be a problem. Do you know when they were last changed? They are a service items. Would also be a good time service the drives while your at it, if they haven’t been serviced recently.

[Vincent3450]

I just had both port and starboard cables, gimbals and bellows, etc replaced and the upper and lower unit from the units which fit into the same port transom shield (sorry don't know exact terminology at moment (I am novice boater).

Bought last year. Was used for 30 years in freshwater on Lake Erie. Bought it mid summer last year, brought to NJ.

[bud37]

Do you know if there are muskrats in the marina....they can sink a boat in a hurry if they get at the rubber back there. Leave the drives down.

Second question...you said you just got this boat...did it come with a survey ??

[Midnightsun]

Are they Bravo drives? If so the steering pin tends to corrode/pit and will need to be replaced as the seal can no longer do it's job. There are after market ones machined of stainless which corrects the issue for good and are actually 4 times cheaper than the carbon steel ones Merc offers. Been there done that. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Stainless-Stee ... SwLKNbtTqZ