Gimbal Bearing replacement on mercruiser

Just interested if anyone has

Just interested if anyone has any advise on replacing the gimbal bearing on a 1900 wellcraft scarab 454 bravo 1. I hear a loud growling sound coming from back of engine during an idle!
Thanks for any help!
Russ

"it's not to bad. A loaner

"it's not to bad. A loaner slide hammer from autozone usaully does the trick for the gimbal and ebasicpower.com
has service kits for the job. They include all the bellows, clamps, and gimbal bearing. be sure to use bellows adheasive. also leaving bellows in sun heats them up to make them easy to get on.
i never have used a bellows expander.
also a great time to check engine alignment.
you can also find service manual at this link
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=251571
Thanx to bondo."

I hope you have better luck wi

I hope you have better luck with yours than mine...Mine must have been in water for a while it was stuck in there . I just recently did mine and the guys around here are very helpful it took me about 8 hrs on and off with the slide hammer to remove the bearing use a lot of wd 40 or something to that nature and don't forget to walk away kurt is right about alignment if the new bearing is not align properly then you probably will not get it back together ... what i did was while replacing the u joints is use the drive shaft .I put it through the bearing along with something a little bit smaller than the race and tapped it into place hope this helps i am no guru like most the guys but i did just do this so i am learning as i go

I made a new "hammer"

I made a new "hammer" for my slide hammer that wieghs about 10 lbs and removes the gimble in 1 or 2 tries!!

I also had a special installation driver made and when used with a 3 lbs small sledge hammer installes the gimble bearing quickly.

With the exception of the out drive removal and reinstallation the gimble r&r takes 20 Minutes.