Cost of boat gear replacement?

Question

Its a 17ft 1988 Bayliner I/O (OMC Cobra). After years w/ a bad cable (which was recently replaced) forward gear is stripped and will only drive in reverse and its at the boat shop for a 3 week wait for repairs. Just wondering what cost I should be expecting. Also the air filter is ducked taped on, leave it or fix it? And about how much?

Answer 1

Had my lower unit winterized two summers ago and the lower gear box had metal shavings in it. Needless to say they had to tear the unit down and the rebuild cost was well above these other two gentleman's estimates. $2200 for all new gears and drive shaft. Yes mine was still working when i had it winterized. Hope there right and i am wrong but do not bet on it. Good Luck!!

Answer 2

Normally you have to take the outdrive/lower unit apart to replace the gear. The gear is proably over a hundred. The larger cost will be the labor which usully depends on the repair shops rates. I would say about $400 but is the stripped gear caused more damge it go be higher. I wold also fix your air filter, on a lot of engines this also works as a flame arrester in case of back fire.

Answer 3

A brief education on boat gearing.  If it sounds good in idle and reverse, the forward gear teeth are fine.  The bad cable caused slow or incomplete shifting into forward which may have chewed the clutch dog teeth off or possibly damaged the lugs on the forward gear.  Normally the clutch dog dies first, which is a cheap part.  The labor is the expensive part.  You may or may not require a forward gear, depending on the damage, but the actual gear teeth should be OK .  On all stern drive and outboard drives, both the forward and reverse gears run all the time, in opposite directions.  When you shift, a clutch dog, which is splined to the prop shaft, moves back or forth and either engages with the forward gear or reverse gear.  A misadjusted cable or improper shifting techniquie will damage the dog over time.  Always make brisk shifts to engage the dog with minimal chatter.  If you here grinding when you shift, don't let it go for long.  Either way, you're in for $400-$600, but I wanted to post a lesson for everyone else so this can be avoided.

Good luck.