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Cant push stern drive in all the way... HELP

J

jraco2016

New member
Good day all,

I just performed a gimbal bearing service on my Bravo II. The bearing is aligned as far as I can tell, the splines line up when re-inserting the driveshaft. The problem is I try to push the stern drive to mate with the gimbal housing and it gets stuck about an inch from mating. I believe the issue is somehow related to metal retaining ring for the driveshaft bellows? Here are some pics.... What do you think?
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Pull the drive back out a bit. Make sure the shift contol is in neutral.
There should be a clasp that is open on the drive side inwhich the cable end must fit into.
If all that is good and you are sure the splines of the drive shaft are engaged into the hub the use your foot and drive the drive in.
It could be the orings on the drive shaft or slight missalignment of the bearing.
 
kghost said:
Pull the drive back out a bit. Make sure the shift contol is in neutral.
There should be a clasp that is open on the drive side inwhich the cable end must fit into.
If all that is good and you are sure the splines of the drive shaft are engaged into the hub the use your foot and drive the drive in.
It could be the orings on the drive shaft or slight missalignment of the bearing.
Click to expand...


Thanks Jack,

The cable is not the issue and the splines line up without a problem. I do not have an alignment tool but I have made a tool comparable to it and can feel that the backside of the bearing is seated flush as it should be. This might also be a clue, when I try to take the stern drive off again it gets jammed up and requires quite a bit of prying to break free from the gimbal housing.
 
Yes the bearing needs to be seated and the gimbal bearing outer race (inside the aluminum carrier) is spherical in design, the alignment tool is used to align it and when the tool is thru the bearing but not in contact with the coupler you can "rotate" the bearing. Not round and round like it would normally spin but the entire bearing will move left or right or up and down in a small rotational manner.................Hope that makes sense...........

If it is off a bit it can make it difficult to slide all the way in.

When you removed it did it come away easy? If not then you may actually have an alignment problem.

You can also remove the two orings and see if it will slide in easier............if it does then the orings are causing the friction.
 
kghost said:
Yes the bearing needs to be seated and the gimbal bearing outer race (inside the aluminum carrier) is spherical in design, the alignment tool is used to align it and when the tool is thru the bearing but not in contact with the coupler you can "rotate" the bearing. Not round and round like it would normally spin but the entire bearing will move left or right or up and down in a small rotational manner.................Hope that makes sense...........

If it is off a bit it can make it difficult to slide all the way in.

When you removed it did it come away easy? If not then you may actually have an alignment problem.

You can also remove the two orings and see if it will slide in easier............if it does then the orings are causing the friction.
Click to expand...


I got it! After I greased the driveshaft I could see that it stopped moving when the bearing hit the O-rings, gave it a couple swings with the mallet, slid in after a couple minutes. Thanks for the help. Now I have to figure out why the shifter is so hard to move from forward to reverse! Have a good night.
 
Bravo does not shift easy if at all if not running.......................Of course in or with water flowing to keep impeller wet...........
 
kghost said:
Bravo does not shift easy if at all if not running.......................Of course in or with water flowing to keep impeller wet...........
Click to expand...


I knowww that.... It was shifting fine before I pulled the stern drive to service the gimbal bearing. I have a suspicion I did something wrong lol. I don't remember if the stern drive was in neutral or in drive when I disconnected it, When I put the stern drive back on I cannot get the lower shift cable to engage or disengage the stern drive. All I did with the shift cable was grease the cable slide in the stern drive and spray WD-40 down the cable sheath for lack of a better option because the cable itself was pinched to hard by the set screws and I could not free it from the sheath.
 
Like I said in my first post..

Bravo needs to be in neutral,

Alpha needs to be in forward.

When bravo is in neutral the clasp on the drive side is out and exposed and open to accept the cable end from the gimbal housing.

If you tried to shift it into neutral when not running the shift control may have moved but the shift cable and linkage in the drive may have not moved all the way and when you removed the drive it could have snapped back into gear...........
 
kghost said:
Like I said in my first post..

Bravo needs to be in neutral,

Alpha needs to be in forward.

When bravo is in neutral the clasp on the drive side is out and exposed and open to accept the cable end from the gimbal housing.

If you tried to shift it into neutral when not running the shift control may have moved but the shift cable and linkage in the drive may have not moved all the way and when you removed the drive it could have snapped back into gear...........
Click to expand...


Got it all back together and working properly.... and then discovered a crack in the block. Not sure what to do from here... whats the average cost to replace a 5.7 mercruiser?
 
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jraco2016 said:
Got it all back together and working properly.... and then discovered a crack in the block. Not sure what to do from here... whats the average cost to replace a 5.7 mercruiser?
Click to expand...
I paid $4500 for a Merc Reman with a 3 year guarantee. I was very pleased.
 
jraco2016 said:
Got it all back together and working properly.... and then discovered a crack in the block. Not sure what to do from here... whats the average cost to replace a 5.7 mercruiser?
Click to expand...
michigan motorz is a good place for new and reman 5.7s

New base engines are $5500, reman is $3650. Both have a $300 or $500 core charge which you wont get all of. When I bought a new base engine they bought my cracked 4.3 for $150 and pd the fright back to them.

if you are handy you can get a truck 5.7 from a junk yard. swap head gaskets, core plugs , and the circulating pump from marine, transfer over al the accessories. The truck and marine long blocks are essentially the same and this is the low buck go to- it used to be places like LKQ were like $350-500 for a running engine. Sure that higher now but a viable option if it a relatively low mile engine out of a wreck

when I did my repower the guy who I bought it from tapped out when he got a $11k quote for a reman Mercruiser bobtail installed
 
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