Re: 1968 mercruiser 160 bellows (Penn yan rebuild)
I am a little unfamiliar with mercs
read you oem service manual and get familar.
So far I'm thinking bellows kit and to check all the cables and bearings
mines a '75, but when i got it. i did most of the jazz. bellows, shift cable, water hose, gimble brg, etc. use your s/m as a guide. it'll tell ya what ya need to do and the criteria as for whats spent, ie. gimble brg. must turn free w/o any feel or sound. must be smooth as ice. any other condition warrents replacement. any rubber parts are suspect. pressure test the drive. compression test the engine. pretend your winterizing and do all the grease points. look for looseness.
mostly, check the mount points for the engine. look for wood rot. i'm on my second L6. 1st one the first sign of disaster was front motor mount lag bolts that wouldn't torque down. wood rot's the enemy on old boats imho.
do an alignment for the coupler. grease everything. there's a bunch more. but that's a start. imho, your oem s/m is your bible for anything mechanical. the boat itself is the rest of the equation.
