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Water in bellows

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oaklandaviator

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"I pulled the outdrive off of

"I pulled the outdrive off of my pre-alpha Mercruiser in-line six powered unit. There was water and greasy goop all in there and the gimbal bearing was shot. I have installed a new gimbal bearing and oil seal and am having a couple problems:

First: the old bellows looks to be in good shape, although I don't know how old it is so I'm going to replace it (parts on order). I am also going to replace the oil seal on the shifter shaft because it looks like water could get into the bellows area that way. Are there any other ways water could get into the bellows area since the bellows actually appears to be in good shape?

Second: How do you get the bell housing off of a pre-alpha drive in order to change the bellows and water hose? It doesn't appear that the Mercruiser "special tool" for the Alpha will work on my drive. Thanks for any help!"
 
"Pre Alpha? Series 1 with the

"Pre Alpha? Series 1 with the 2 SS nails?
Water in the bellows comes in basically just 2 ways, a hole in the boot or a very high bilge level, the shaft seal may allow water in the shift cable area but not into the boot."
 
"I suggest ordering a complete

"I suggest ordering a complete outdrive kit, comes with upper/lower bellows, shift cable bellows, shift cable, outdrive gasket, gimbal bearing and water hose I think. sorry been a few months since I saw a book.

Pre-alpha, need a long screwdriver and 1/4" rachet set, and lay on your back. take the drive off first :)

Water can get in from the upper bellows or shift cable bellows. Exhaust/lower bellows doesn't matter, in fact OMC Cobra has holes along the ribs"
 
"Thanks for the quick response

"Thanks for the quick response guys.

I was able to find the nails and the pins came right out. Thanks for that! As for the bellows, it still looked great, so I'm at a loss as to how the water/sludge got in there. I'll have a new bellows here in a couple days and will replace it...but I have my doubts. The water hose looked horrible though, so I am sure it was the right thing to do.

Also my trim limit switch's wires are completely gone, so I was going to change the switch out while the bell housing was off. It looks like the gimbal housing has to come off as well in order to get this old style switch out. Since the gimbal housing pins seem to be pretty much stuck in there, I'm about ready to give up on changing the switch and accept that I'll have to use the trailer mode to trim up. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks."
 
"Look closer, you`ll find that

"Look closer, you`ll find that their threaded , use the proper size bolt and a slide hammer to remove them"
 
"due to other reasons, my trim

"due to other reasons, my trim limit switch isn't connected either, but rarely run in shallow water and try to always know where the drive is by knowing the speed at which the drive moves and how long I hold the button. no trim gauge either right now.. roughing it..

PS.. my pins are held in with nails"
 
"A friend drilled out the nail

"A friend drilled out the nails a bit then drove them out with nails or a punch, but the pins came out with heat, My drive doesn't have a trim sender just trim limit, "I think" the threaded pins are only on the later drives and/or the #1 drives with trim senders on the gimbal ring.

Mine aren't threaded ( like the alpha boys )"
 
"7 17-77361A1 PIN,HINGE-GIMBAL

"7 17-77361A1 PIN,HINGE-GIMBAL RING TO BELL HOUSING 17-38031 $25.20 $24.58 2

8 17-77039 PIN,HINGE PIN RETAINING-GIMBAL RING 17-35571 $4.27 $4.16 2

7 77123 PIN,HINGE-THREADED WITHOUT GREASE GROOVE 65547 WITH GIMBAL TRIM SENDER $22.76 $22.20 2

7 77123 PIN,HINGE-THREADED WITH GREASE GROOVE WITH GIMBAL TRIM SENDER $22.76 $22.20 2"
 
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