That sounds a lot more like an engine problem than an outdrive. The
possibility that your outdrive or a ujoint would break while cranking are
pretty low. And if a ujoint borke I would not expect it to stop the engine
from turning. Start by putting a long breaker bar on the front of the crack
and see if you can turn the engine by hand. You need a 5/8 socket. You may
be able to turn it backward with the breaker bar. If the center bolt starts
backing out then thread a couple 2 to 3 inch 3/8 bolts into the balancer to
rest the breaker bar against. There are three bolt holes in the balancer,
there may be short bolts in them but you can take one or two of these out
temporarily. If it turns over freely then I'd check the starter before
anything else. If it won't turn over either way then pull the plugs and try
again. Check the ends of the plugs for damage.

One of the problems with your symptoms is water getting into one or more
cylinders. Either because of a bad manifold/riser or simply because of a
shot flapper and a few good sized waves into the transom. If water gets
into a cylinder and the engine cranks, the water can not compress.
Sometimes the result is a broken rod. Particularly if the engine gets a
chance to start as then it really has some power behind that piston when it
comes up on the compression stroke. If the engine doesn't start the water
will usually just stop the starter in its tracks, the starter is not strong
enough to break a rod. Broken rods ends often jam into the block and
prevent the engine form turning any further. This is the worst case
scenario so eliminate everything else first.

"Ed" wrote in message
ink.net...
Hi All-

Before I decide to tear open the outdrive, I thought I would check to see
if
there are any ideas as to the cause of my problem.

I was down on the coast this past weekend (in NC) for some great boating
and
as usual when I return from the coast, I take the boat to a fresh water
lake
to run all the sal****er out of the system. When I attempted to start the
engine it turned over maybe one or two revolutions and then a terrible
sounding 'clank' occurred and then it seems that the engine/outdrive was
seized. The boat ran flawlessly the entire weekend prior to the failure,
so
I don't believe the engine itself is seized.

Does this sound like a broken U-joint or lower unit gear problem? The gear
shift lever seems to function normally.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Ed