Upper Driveshaft Bearing - Mercruiser Pre-Alpha 1.84

[emmurphy50]

I blew up the upper gears on a pre-Alpha 1.84 outdrive. I found a college kid who gave up on the restoration of a boat and bought a pre-Alpha outdrive from him that matches mine and also off a 470. I crossed my fingers and water pump didn't work, but seemed to run OK otherwise (470 is closed loop, so engine didn't overheat immediately), at a great price, sight unseen (worth the prop that was on it).

I was going to pressure test the outdrive, and pulled top cover off just to have a look. I noticed the upper (visible) bearing is bad, with the races broken and the rollers not constrained in the bearing. I'm wondering:

A) Can you replace the bearing from the top without dismantling the outdrive?
B) Would the bearing in this shape necessitate that I should have the drive dismantled - or given it's age (early 1980s vintage), I should just pop the 1300 and get a new aftermarket drive?

Thanks,
Ed

 

[alldodge]

upper (visible) bearing is bad, with the races broken and the rollers not constrained in the bearing

Your going to need to take the entire drive apart, clean and rebuild, or a new drive. All the small and not so small pieces of the race and cage have eased down into the drive. The gears would have made them smaller and probably damaged the drive. Unless you like to rebuild one , just go get an SEI drive

 

[emmurphy50]

By pieces, its just the small slivers of metal between a few rollers...

 

[alldodge]

By pieces, its just the small slivers of metal between a few rollers...

IMO your rolling the dice, so you could gamble and if it works great, if not your buying a new drive

 

[flipbro]

And the house always wins.. Rebuild it properly or buy a replacement. Things fail for a reason and often is more damage that can't be seen with and untrained eye.