Installing U-joint bellows to transom assembly - 1976 Mercruiser 888

[khe]

I have the exhaust bellows glued and clamped to the transom assembly and the U-joint bellows glued and clamped to the bell housing but I cannot get the bellows to seat properly on the transom assembly. Twice, I removed it before the adhesive set and cleaned everything with lacquer thinner. There is about an inch of the circumference that will not seat fully on the starboard side. It was in the low 40's when I was working on it and wonder if that may have had something to do with it.

I am going to try lubing it with some power tune and see if it will go on just to verify that it will seat fully, then clean everything with lacquer thinner and then use bellows adhesive and clamp it into place.

 

[Bt Doctur]

sounds like you have the clamp a bit too snug

 

[khe]

Thanks for the reply! I thought it was loose enough but I will double check it the next time I am able to look at it - it is two hours away and it will be a little over a week before I will be able to look at it.

I need to replace the lower shift cable as the sheath has a 1" crack in it. The original shift cable is no longer available so I need to use the current cable and tap out the bell housing so it can attach from the back of the bell housing like the Alpha models.

There was a lot of white aluminum corrosion in the shift cable area - this is a freshwater boat and I am thinking the upper shift shaft seal may be leaking and that is what damaged the shift cable. Is there a special tool to install the seal?

 

[khe]

New shift cable bellows and outer shift cable are installed but I still cannot get the U-joint bellows to seat to the transom side. I tried it without cement and it seemed to seat so I applied bellows adhesive and then it looked like the clamp pulled it away at the 3:00 position. The clamp is loose enough - I just want to make sure it is installed properly and does not leak. I am going to measure where the transom flange should be inside the bellows and make sure I am installing it to that point but other than that, I don't know what I could be doing wrong.

 

[Bt Doctur]

When installing the bellow there are 3 ridges /high spots that the edge of the bellows come to.when properly installed . Does your housing have the recessed ridge and do your bellows have the protruding ridge?
They make 2, one with and 1 without, cant mix them

 

[khe]

There is a groove on the outside diameter of the transom and a corresponding rib on the inside diameter of the bellows that will fit into the groove in the transom assembly so I think I have the correct bellows. It just seems to not want to sit against the aluminum when the clamp is tightened at the 3:00 position when looking inside.

I need to make a mark on the inside of the bellows 1" from the end so that I can use that as a reference when I make the third attempt to install it this morning. This project has been an absolute nightmare - nothing has gone smoothly and everything has been fighting me at every step. The gen 2 bellows are piece of cake compared to this thing...

 

[Bt Doctur]

Sounds like the correct parts so try this. Apply the adhesive , slide bellows on , just sung clamp untill glue dries, then fully tighten clamp

 

[khe]

Bt Doctur,

I followed your advice - it is curing up now and when I get back from a ride in my boat, I'll fully tighten the clamp. Then I get to experience gluing the exhaust bellows. My tool I made for the gen 2 drives won't work - the exhaust port is too narrow so I'll need to come up with a way to hold that in place.

 

[khe]

I got the exhaust bellows installed to the bell housing. When I looked in the shop manual that is circa 1974, there is not a torque spec. listed for the 888. It refers to stainless retaining pins which this unit does not have. In the specifications sections, the hinge pin torque spec. just shows "----". This unit has hinge pins that look identical to the gen 2 drives. On my gen 2 drive, the spec is 100 ft.-lbs. but the highest spec. listed in the old shop manual is 75 ft-lbs. I'm leaning towards torqueing them to 75 ft-lbs. with red Loctite but is there any difference in bell housings from an 888 drive to a gen 2 unit that specs. 100 ft-lbs?

The way this job has been going, I really don't want to take a chance...

 

[Bt Doctur]

Red loctite is not needee

 

[khe]

What should I torque the pins to? The specs (or lack of specs.) for this old unit are confusing.

 

[khe]

The instructions for the sender kit said 95 ft.-lbs. so that's what I did. I got the drive installed and the trim limit sender hooked up. Tomorrow, I'll get the trim indicator sender hooked up and calibrate the senders. This has been a nightmare job that fought me every step of the way.

 

[khe]

The trim indicator sender adjustment is touchy/coarse. At drive full down, the best I could do was to have the gage needle one needle width above the down position and at full up, it read 3/4.

I started the engine on the hose muffs and it went in and out of forward and reverse gears perfectly. I think the issue with the U-joint bellows not seating when the clamp was tightened was just the first convolution moving. The sealing surface always appeared to be intact. The exhaust bellows wasn't too bad to install - I wish I would have left the upper shift shaft out (I replaced the seal) but I was able to work the bellows tool in there and install the exhaust bellows to the bell housing.

It seems as if that project fought me every step of the way. The original job was to replace the trim limit and trim indicator sensors that have not worked for quite some time. When I got it disassembled, I discovered the upper shift shaft seal was bad and allowed water to get in around the shift cable area and the shift cable outer jacket had a split in it. The original cable was no longer available so I tapped the bell housing with the 1/4-18 straight pipe tap and installed the latest generation shift cable. All the bellows were replaced as part of this project but I can say the original bellows were still in decent shape for being 41 years old. They had some mild cracking in the convolutions so I just replaced all of them as well as the water inlet hose.

Thanks for all the help Bt Doctur!