- Oct 4, 2006
- 2,335
- Boat Info
- 2003 280DA and 1995 Sea Ray 175
- Engines
- Twin 4.3l and 3.0l, all w/ AlphaI GenII drives
In a [thread=7653]previous thread[/thread], I asked about obtaining some of the custom tools I'd need to remove my outdrive and gimbal housing to replace the water pump, shift cable and bellows. Waterpump was fine, but wanted to do preventative maintenance. Bellows was the main reason; I had water getting into the bilge at a trickle last season. I found the culprit... I'd like to thank those of you that sold, or gave me some of those tools.; Thanks Frank (fc3) and Scott (sfergson727)! :smt038
Anyway, me and a friend (who also needed to pull his outdrive on an '85 Four Winns) did the job together on both boats at my place. First time for both of us. Now that it is all said and done, I can say it was easier than I thought it would be. Very straightforward. I had read my Mercruiser manual, a Clymer manual and various "HowTo" websites and could have probably done it blindfold. But it all paid off.
The drive came off super easy. Had it off in probably less than half an hour. Put it on my custom-made stand (see [thread=9064]this thread[/thread]) and took the upper unit off. Was greeted by this:
Kinda scary, good thing I did it. Looked to be sand or something...not sure how it got there, other than being circulated through the engine and then out the exhaust. Must have been done with previous owner as I had never been close to bottom (that I know of). Inside the pump, it was all clean though.
Now to get the gimbal housing off. I was worried about those hinge pins. Torqued to 95 ft-lbs with red hi-strength threadlocker?!! :smt101 Well, the tool that Frank gave me and my breaker bar worked like a charm and they broke loose. Then I used an air impact wrench to spin them off. Took off (or otherwise cut off) the bellows and the shift cable using my new shift cable removal tool and removed the gimbal housing.
It all looked pretty good inside. Upon inspection of the bellows, I found the culprit:
A nice crack in the shift cable bellows! That was allowing all the water into the bilge area. And as I had known beforehand, more water got in when the drive was up than was down. Made sense, since how it flexed in the up vs. down position.
Now putting all those bellows back on was a job! The worst part was the new water hose. It took probably a half hour to get each end in position. Just really nasty to get over the fitting and snugged up and then getting the clamp tightened on both ends. On the gimbal housing end, you could barely see what you were doing.
Getting the U-joint bellows on over the gimbal housing wasn't that easy either. [thread=8212](I posted for help on this and then figured it out)[/thread]. On the Alpha I Gen II there is a metal ring that fits inside the bellows, pressing it into a groove in the housing. It was difficult to get the bellows to stay put, then get the ring in and press it forward. I fabricated a tool out of woodjust like the one you can buy, and it ended up working great to seat it...once I was able to keep the bellows in place for a few seconds.
The exhaust bellows expander install tool was worth every single penny! It would have been impossible to do otherwise. Buy it. You have to expand the bellows over an oval "hole" from inside the bellows. No way to get to the backsid of it. Great tool.
The shift cable install was pretty straightforward. Hardest part was getting the beginning of the cable sheathing started into the shift cable bellows. It just did not want to go...but it finally did (patience! which I generally have little of). Adjusting it topside by the engine was easy following the manual instructions.
Once the outdrive was back together, I cleaned it all up and gave it a new paintjob. Then we installed it back on the boat. Sounded hard to do, in getting everthing to line up, but it went right in. It did get hung up when we had it just touching the studs to slip over, but a slight turn of the prop let the splines of the shaft engage and it went the rest of the way. Be sure to follow the instructions about getting everything into forward gear before installing.
Here she is
Since this photo, I bought new trim cylinder anodes, trim cylinder end caps (they were missing to begin with) and a plastic plug for where the flat anode is near the prop. Brand new looking!
Started her up a week or so ago in the driveway and everything seemed to work well; came up to operating temp and stayed there, water working its way through the system. Still have not got it out on the water as our weather has been horrible for my little boat on the big river. If its not raining, its windy with small craft advisories, sheesh.
All this for about $330.00 in parts, and about 11 hours total in labor, spread across two days, between two guys. All of it could have been a one-man job, except for getting the drive off, on, and fishing the old shift cable out, and the new one in.
So now I know how this gizmo works...and I'm not scared anymore. :grin:
Anyway, me and a friend (who also needed to pull his outdrive on an '85 Four Winns) did the job together on both boats at my place. First time for both of us. Now that it is all said and done, I can say it was easier than I thought it would be. Very straightforward. I had read my Mercruiser manual, a Clymer manual and various "HowTo" websites and could have probably done it blindfold. But it all paid off.
The drive came off super easy. Had it off in probably less than half an hour. Put it on my custom-made stand (see [thread=9064]this thread[/thread]) and took the upper unit off. Was greeted by this:
Kinda scary, good thing I did it. Looked to be sand or something...not sure how it got there, other than being circulated through the engine and then out the exhaust. Must have been done with previous owner as I had never been close to bottom (that I know of). Inside the pump, it was all clean though.
Now to get the gimbal housing off. I was worried about those hinge pins. Torqued to 95 ft-lbs with red hi-strength threadlocker?!! :smt101 Well, the tool that Frank gave me and my breaker bar worked like a charm and they broke loose. Then I used an air impact wrench to spin them off. Took off (or otherwise cut off) the bellows and the shift cable using my new shift cable removal tool and removed the gimbal housing.
It all looked pretty good inside. Upon inspection of the bellows, I found the culprit:
A nice crack in the shift cable bellows! That was allowing all the water into the bilge area. And as I had known beforehand, more water got in when the drive was up than was down. Made sense, since how it flexed in the up vs. down position.
Now putting all those bellows back on was a job! The worst part was the new water hose. It took probably a half hour to get each end in position. Just really nasty to get over the fitting and snugged up and then getting the clamp tightened on both ends. On the gimbal housing end, you could barely see what you were doing.
Getting the U-joint bellows on over the gimbal housing wasn't that easy either. [thread=8212](I posted for help on this and then figured it out)[/thread]. On the Alpha I Gen II there is a metal ring that fits inside the bellows, pressing it into a groove in the housing. It was difficult to get the bellows to stay put, then get the ring in and press it forward. I fabricated a tool out of woodjust like the one you can buy, and it ended up working great to seat it...once I was able to keep the bellows in place for a few seconds.
The exhaust bellows expander install tool was worth every single penny! It would have been impossible to do otherwise. Buy it. You have to expand the bellows over an oval "hole" from inside the bellows. No way to get to the backsid of it. Great tool.
The shift cable install was pretty straightforward. Hardest part was getting the beginning of the cable sheathing started into the shift cable bellows. It just did not want to go...but it finally did (patience! which I generally have little of). Adjusting it topside by the engine was easy following the manual instructions.
Once the outdrive was back together, I cleaned it all up and gave it a new paintjob. Then we installed it back on the boat. Sounded hard to do, in getting everthing to line up, but it went right in. It did get hung up when we had it just touching the studs to slip over, but a slight turn of the prop let the splines of the shaft engage and it went the rest of the way. Be sure to follow the instructions about getting everything into forward gear before installing.
Here she is
Since this photo, I bought new trim cylinder anodes, trim cylinder end caps (they were missing to begin with) and a plastic plug for where the flat anode is near the prop. Brand new looking!
Started her up a week or so ago in the driveway and everything seemed to work well; came up to operating temp and stayed there, water working its way through the system. Still have not got it out on the water as our weather has been horrible for my little boat on the big river. If its not raining, its windy with small craft advisories, sheesh.
All this for about $330.00 in parts, and about 11 hours total in labor, spread across two days, between two guys. All of it could have been a one-man job, except for getting the drive off, on, and fishing the old shift cable out, and the new one in.
So now I know how this gizmo works...and I'm not scared anymore. :grin:
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