Water and sludge in bellow

PapaT

Member
Jul 26, 2022
31
Redondo Beach, CA
Boat Info
270 sundeck 2006, mercruiser 6.2
Engines
Mercruiser 6.2 320HP, bravo III
I just bought a 2006 Sea Ray 270 SD. I’m having the bravo 3 OD serviced. While pulling apart the drive the mechanic found water and a tan color sludge in the gimbal bearing bellow. On Monday they will pull apart the rest of the drive to try and find the leak. The bellows were supposedly replaced 2 years ago and have only added 50 addl hours. The joint is all rusted. Any ideas?
 
I just bought a 2006 Sea Ray 270 SD. I’m having the bravo 3 OD serviced. While pulling apart the drive the mechanic found water and a tan color sludge in the gimbal bearing bellow. On Monday they will pull apart the rest of the drive to try and find the leak. The bellows were supposedly replaced 2 years ago and have only added 50 addl hours. The joint is all rusted. Any ideas?
Probably never replaced the bellows as they claimed.
The sludge could just be gimble bearing grease mixed with raw water.
 
Possibly the PO left the outdrive trim in the "trailer" position for an extended period. That could have potentially caused a tear, but I would hope your mechanic would have found that fairly readily and pointed it out to you.
The tan sludge is water, grease, and rust, as you've most likely already figured out. Nasty stuff. If the bellows was replaced without using sufficient bellows adhesive on both ends, water could possibly sneak inside.
 
After inspection, the bellow clamp was not tight which let the water in. Did quite a lot of damage.
Gimbal and u-joints; could be worse. Thanks for the follow-up! I'm happy to hear you were able to assign a cause.
 

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