D.I.Y. Bellows Replacement

O

Old Vet

New Member
Sep 12, 2010
706
St Lawrence River/1000 Islands
Boat Info
1987 268 Sundancer
Engines
454 Magnum, Alpha One
Has anyone here successfully replaced their own U-Joint bellows?

I bought this boat late this season and had it out 4 times for a total of 11 hours. It's now on blocks at my house.

Each time out....I'd get an excessive amount of water in my bilge. I mean quite alot of water. When tying up to the dock....the bilge pump would start and a solid heavy stream of water would get pumped out for a good 2-3-4 minutes.

I've hunted everywhere and not been able to locate where it was coming from. Until perhaps today.

I removed my outdrive today and upon inspection of the bellows, it appears that the U-Joint bellows has become detached in at least 3 places on the inner end around the gimbal bearing..

If I'm not mistaken...these bellows are supposed to be secured in place first with some bellows cement...and then a clamp. Correct?

It appears that the inner end of the bellows has possibly pulled out from under the clamp in 3 spots as depicted in the attached picture.

Does it look like that to anyone else? If you can tell by my picture?

Seeing a Youtube video on how to replace these bellows....it doesn't really look like too huge a job.....is it?
 
Haven't done mine yet but when its time, I will be doing them myself. You need a bellows expander tool, got mine off ebay.
 
Was there any water inside the bellows when you removed the drive?
If its leaking, there would be water in there...there should be none.
The grease will look milky too.....
You should see rust on the bearing and on the u-joints/shaft.
If it was leaking you need to change the Gimbel bearing, u-joints, and bellows.
The pics look OK to me.
I would have it changed anyway, along with the shift cable bellows.
I have only done it once and will gladly pay someone else if I ever have an outdrive powered boat again.
Check with www.sterndrives.com for DIY info.
Goodluck..
 
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I can appreciate that it's kinda hard to say just by looking at that pic.

The sections the arrows point to though kinda look like a tear....or like the bellows has pulled out from under the clamp. Especially section #1. Well sections 2 & 3 I guess as well. Looking closely you can see the black bellows....then what appears to be kind of a split and it's grey...then back to black again...then another split and it's grey. But I think it kinda shows up best in section #1 in the pic.

The gimbel bearing feels great....very smooth. I couldn't feel any roughness at all in it. U-Joints also appear to be real good. There was no rust visible anywhere at all. Lots of grease in there. Not milky at all.

When I first started to separate the outdrive from the gimbal housing...there was a bit of water dripping out....but not very much. And there didn't appear to be any other water inside. "shrug"

Looking at the maintenace records I have...the shift cable bellows and another bellows (#18-2751 @ $64.82) were both changed in April this year. But that doesn't necessarily mean a real good job was done of it.

Because of all the water I'm getting in the bilge...I HAD TO pull the drive to take a look because I couldn't find any other source of the amount of water I was getting coming in.
 
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I dont know??
The problem with changing it yourself is... if done incorrectly, it will leak and be a waste of time and money.
..
 
I'm getting ready to do my mine. I understand if your into it that far you should replace the gimbal bearing and the shift cable. You can find a couple of crappy how to videos on youtube.com if you do a search. It gives you a general overview of what you will be into. Also check iboats.com and do a search. You will find directions on how to make the bellow expander tool and step by step directions with pictures.
 
I hear ya Air....

When shopping around and seeing the prices of these bellows....it appears that this u-joint bellows may have been replaced in April....the $68.00 one. The invoice I have doesn't specify which bellows was done...just says "bellows".

Unfortunately looking at it now...it makes me wonder just how good a job was done in April by someone who was supposed to know what he was doing.

That notwithstanding...now that it's in my yard with the outdrive off I'm inclined to replace it again....probably even all of them. But a problem I'm going to have is finding a marine mechanic who makes "house calls" now.

Whether I do in fact tackle it myself remains to be seen. I've got the winter and spring now to sort this out. But any tips, pointers, advice available is greatly appreciated.
 
"You will find directions on how to make the bellow expander tool and step by step directions with pictures. "

Wouldn't happen to have a link would you? I looked but didn't see that yet. Will look again. Thanks.
 
The bellow expander tool is only for the exhaust bellow, you do not need it for u-joint bellows.
 
You mean they have an expander tool $#%@. I did a search when I replaced mine and all I saw was a bunch of no problem.. Well that is not true it is a pain in the RUMP to replace them! cement???? I had grease from elbow to ankle. I was real proud when I did finally get them done EVEN WITHOUT a bellows tool. You will need a flex nut driver to take apart and put back
 
I did mine myself and posted a little article on the repair here:

http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29505

It's not a technically difficult or challenging job. But it does take a lot of patience! The bellow expander tool is a must-have requirement. I bought one and once I saw how it worked, there's no other way to do it.

Replacing the water hose is the next most trickiest part. Lots of patience, as you can't see what you're doing and there's not a room for your hand in there...you'll know when you do it. :smt001

I wouldn't replace the U-joints unless they need it, and it should be obvious if they need it...not hard, but not required.

Same with the shift cable, wouldn't do it unless you had shift issues. I DID replace mine becuase I had a lot of slop in my controller (didn't help). The hard part there is trying to feed the shift cable through the transom, behind the engine where you can't see!

But I would NEVER pay someone to do it. And now I have a boat with two outdrives...yeah. :smt009 At least I have peace of mind knowing that I did it...and usually I am so meticulous, I'll get it right, and feel better about it.

Tom
 
Thanks Tom

I tried to access that link you provided and got a message saying I did not have permission to access that page. WTF??? How does one get permission?

"I wouldn't replace the U-joints unless they need it, and it should be obvious if they need it...not hard, but not required."

My u-joints look and feel great....tight...lots of lube...no rust anywhwere.

Same for my gimbel bearing....no rust....as smooth as any bearing I've ever felt..and there have been many. :)

Never had any shift issues either...it's been fine.

I'll look into acquiring an expander tool...saw one on a site somewhere that I've saved in my fav list.....sterndrives.com maybe or something like that.
 
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I'm so new...I don't know what I don't know...

But what I do know is if you Google "$3.00 bellow tool" Yes, No kidding here...Click the Cached Button.

It will take you to the iboats forum page where the device is detailed.

Or you can use this link.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=358490

I just did 2 of the bellows on my 170 mercruiser and it was not bad at all. I had just around 3 hours in it and $150.00+/- in parts. The shifter cable had already been done and looked like new.

I didn't use a bellows tool either. I used a 16" drill bit extender, put a 1-1/4" fender washer and a 1/4-20 bolt in the end of it. I secured to both and fender washer using the hex set screws on the bit extender and just worked the buggers around until they were in place. I used glue on both ends of both the exhaust and CV.

If ya'll look at my other thread for "dirty old boat" you'll see I'll be taking these back off to re-align the motor.

Yeah for me!

Good Luck with yours.
 
Oh geez. By the way, you will definitely need the flexible extension, either for a socket or a screwdriver to make the connections after everything is back together.
 
Bellows replacement is not too tricky. I've done a couple with no expander tool and did not have any difficulty.

As far as that leak... that gimbal bearing and u-joint would be rusty.

A stern drive can leak in a number of places. Does it only leak when running, or all the time?

Your possible points include steering shaft seal, u joint bellows, shift bellows, trim limit/sender grommet, raw water intake hose, transom assembly itself where it meets the hull.
 
"As far as that leak... that gimbal bearing and u-joint would be rusty."

As you can see in my picture....that gimbal bearing looks great. Clean (well greasy)...but lots of lube....absolutely no rust....and feels absolutely perfect....no roughness whatsoever in it.

My u-joints also look and feel great.....tight...lots of grease...absolutely no rust on them or the shaft at all.

"Does it only leak when running, or all the time?"

I've only really seen it "leak" when running. Keep in mind I've only run the boat 4 times so far....each run perhaps an hour or two...except for it's last run of 20 minutes taking it to the ramp to be pulled out. Each time after shutting down....the bilge pump would come on and pump out what I consider a hell of alot of water.

Is there a "leak" when not running? I really don't know for sure. The boat would sit for a week or two at a time between uses. Is the bilge pump starting and pumping out when I'm not there......I have no idea. :huh:

During those times that it's sitting not being used.....I'd go down at least once or twice a week to check on it....but I've never seen the pump start while I was there.

I had the owner of a marina come down with me one day....he rebuilds many transoms. He hunted all around my engine room...as have I.....and could find no evidence of where that much damn water could be coming from. My transom is dry and solid.

We did find that a thru hull for a deck drain down low close to the water line was very loose and the hose was barely on it at all. In fact with a tiny little tug...the hose fell off in his hand. I've removed that thru hull fitting (there was virtually no caulking left around/under it at all and what was there was all dry and just crumbled away)... I recaulked it and tightened it right up....and put the drain hose onto it properly ALL the way now and clamped on tightly. But I have difficulty believing that it was the culprit allowing so much water into the boat.

One thing I have not yet been able to check is a thru hull pipe and fitting directly below the engine. I haven't even seen it yet....but was told by the PO that it's there and is for a wash down pump should I ever wish to install one.

I saw the thru hull fitting underneath the boat....but not inside under the engine yet. Could this be the source of the leak.....a definite maybe. I don't know how long the nipple under the engine is that's connected to that thru hull fitting. But maybe I need to take my garden hose and start filling the bilge now and watch to see if any water starts leaking out under the boat around that thru hull fitting.

But back to my bellows issue....... IF ....my u-joint bellows are split....just how much water could that result in getting into my bilge? ALOT?

If you look closely at my picture.....look at the area between sections 1 and 2. You can see the black bellows rubber in tact. Then look at section #1 for example where I have the arrow pointed. Does that not look like a tear.....not black bellows rubber...but a grey color. Same for sections 2 and 3.

I have to take a long skinny screwdriver...or piece of wire or something and poke around at that spot that appears to be a tear to confirm that it is in fact a tear in the bellows.

If those are in fact tears......is that enough for a whole bunch of water to be getting into my bilge?
 
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The symptoms you describe sounds like mine. When running hard, like towing a tube, the bilge pump repeatedly came on. When the boat was tied up over night at the dock it never came on. When I checked the bilge I found grease and water, the last two times out. Prior to this the bilge was always clean and dry. I dont want to climb in there while running and try to look for leaks. The engine room has a lot of room but I'm scared to climb in there underway. I added some arrows to the pic below highlighting the areas I found to be wet. That area drains to the bilge through a hole in the stringer. Please let me know what you find.

My last post in this thread said to replace the gimbal bearing and shift cable. This opinion comes from the majority of the folks who have done a bellows replacement. The thinking is unless you know the age of the part and condition why take your boat apart again next season when it fails. For an additional $150 you get that peace of mind. Please let me know if you find the leak. Thanks Don.

Bilgeleak.jpg
 
Keokie, I forgot to mention I will be doing the job in your front yard on monday so you can coach !!
 
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