Transom Seal

[GRUMILLA]

What's involved in changing out the transom seal?
Its got a bad problem of dry rot and needs to be replaced.
Anything I need to look out for when doing this?:eek:
Best place to get the parts, in Midwest or other?

[Havasu Hangin']

If you have rot...the transom shield seal is the least of your worries.
The dry rot won't allow a good seal, because the fiberglass has nothing to keep it from deforming.
Are you gonna put a new transom in?

[GRUMILLA]

The fiberglass is all very good shape but the boat spent most of its time in dry dock and the rubberized kind of canvas like material is getting cracks... dry rot for lack of better term.
I work on heavy equipment mostly and very little experience on boats. We've got a shop close to our home called Hooterville Marine and I will most likely run the boat over there for lookover and see what kind of estimate shock they will give me but if its not to bad of fix I can tackle it myself.
As for as I can tell on this 1979 IMP X-250 it is in very good condition and got best of care from the past owner who put all of about 400 hours on it. I need to drain the rest of the old fuel out of the tanks and spend time going through system checks but so far everything is looking good.

[Havasu Hangin']

Usually the seal is pretty durable. If there is any separation, that will doom the seal.
Take a close look at the bolts on the inside of the transom shield...make sure they they aren't pressing into the wood at all. If they are, the wood is probaby bad. Take a wrench and check the bolts for tightness.
Also, it's a good idea not to store the boat with any water in the bilge- if the outdrive cutout is not sealed properly, it will rot the transom as the wood absorbs the moisture.
I'm not sure about those drives, but I'll bet $1 that you have to pull the motors to get the transom shields off. Then pull the drives, and start unbolting the shield (gimbal housing)....it's the hardest part to remove.
If they are going bad, maybe you'll be lucky and be able to slow it down (or stop the leak) by tightening the transom bolts- mine used to do that, before I replaced everything.
Or you could just silicone it and get a good bilge pump.
(Just kidding)

[dorC]

The red neck fix is to run a tiny bead of 5200 around the gimble assembly. Otherwise you have to pull the gimble assembly which will require the removal of the engine. The seal is a foam gasket that is glued into a groove. Dig the gasket out with a screw driver and clean the adhesive off with some 3m adhesive remover. While the gimble assembly is off, perhaps you'd want to look into rebuilding it. At least replace the bellows and tighten the upper pivot. Maybe that redneck fix isn't so bad afterall.

[kevnmcd]

HH - I will bet you that $1 that the engine does NOT need to be pulled. These are the same outdrives I had on my old Eliminator (OMC 800). You only need to remove the outdrive. The boot is held on to the transom with screws and a big hose clamp holds the boot to the outdrive gimbal. I had mine done for about $300 (including labor and parts). Not too hard just time consuming and I didn't want to mess with droping the drive myself. Good luck. :D

[Havasu Hangin']

Originally posted by kevnmcd
HH - I will bet you that $1 that the engine does NOT need to be pulled...
Then I owe you a dollar.
The line forms to the left.
Either way...I'd look closely at the wood in the transom...if water was coming in the seals, the wood will not be happy.

[kevnmcd]

I would have to agree with you on checking the wood. :)

[GRUMILLA]

Hey thanks guys! Yes droping the lower drive looks to be the way to get at the whole thing.
Only I get to do this twice! Oh well thats what I get for going twin engine.
The rubber is cracked and would not hold up well... maybe if I mount that 6" pump back there and not stop to often:p