Matt1952
New member
Hello Everyone,
I've been reading through the Forum trying to find my answers before posting a question that has been dealt with before, but I can't seem to find any posts mentioning my list of problems all together.
OK where to start, the boat is a 1988 Bayliner 1952 with a 3.0L OMC Cobra, its kept on a trailer and thus not left in the water for any great length of time. When moored I noticed water leaking in from the sterndrive, and assumed a problem with the bellows, so pulled the leg with a view to changing it.
Now for the list of problems. When I took the prop off I found fishing line wrapped around the shaft and as I drained the gearbox oil there was water in the lower leg (oil on dipstick was clean and NOT emulsified) so I'm assuming a prop shaft seal has gone? Upon removing the drive there was water and oil inside the UJ Bellows (see attached photo), (there is no rust on the UJ or drive shaft so the water can't have been there long) and in the immortal words of most posters upon inspection the rubber of the bellows seems fine.
So the questions:-
Has water got into the bellows (through poor sealing or a split I haven't found yet) and from there into the boat and the leg, or is it probably two separate faults.
Next if the UJ bellows are fine and correctly sealed, can water get into them from anywhere else?
Lastly any ideas on the oil? I've got a feeling the engine was overfilled with oil when I had the boat, so can engine oil get into the UJ bellows? Engine oil and gearbox oil levels are fine now.
Hope I haven't gone into too much detail but I believe in giving as much info as you can when asking for advice and help!!!
Thank you all
Matt
I've been reading through the Forum trying to find my answers before posting a question that has been dealt with before, but I can't seem to find any posts mentioning my list of problems all together.
OK where to start, the boat is a 1988 Bayliner 1952 with a 3.0L OMC Cobra, its kept on a trailer and thus not left in the water for any great length of time. When moored I noticed water leaking in from the sterndrive, and assumed a problem with the bellows, so pulled the leg with a view to changing it.
Now for the list of problems. When I took the prop off I found fishing line wrapped around the shaft and as I drained the gearbox oil there was water in the lower leg (oil on dipstick was clean and NOT emulsified) so I'm assuming a prop shaft seal has gone? Upon removing the drive there was water and oil inside the UJ Bellows (see attached photo), (there is no rust on the UJ or drive shaft so the water can't have been there long) and in the immortal words of most posters upon inspection the rubber of the bellows seems fine.
So the questions:-
Has water got into the bellows (through poor sealing or a split I haven't found yet) and from there into the boat and the leg, or is it probably two separate faults.
Next if the UJ bellows are fine and correctly sealed, can water get into them from anywhere else?
Lastly any ideas on the oil? I've got a feeling the engine was overfilled with oil when I had the boat, so can engine oil get into the UJ bellows? Engine oil and gearbox oil levels are fine now.
Hope I haven't gone into too much detail but I believe in giving as much info as you can when asking for advice and help!!!
Thank you all
Matt