Aftermarket/non Mercuiser replacment parts

[MI-TY]

Question for those experienced boat repair guys,

I need to replace my impeller on my alpha one drive. I also figure while I have the drive off I might as well replace the lower shift cable (it caused some stalling last season) and while i'm in there the bellows might as well get replaced too.

My question is, what is the quality of these other part suppliers (GLM and Sierra) that I am seeing..are they safe to use instead of genuine Mercruiser replacement parts? I mean, it seems to be a bit risky, at least for the replacment bellows...if they are bad you literally can sink your boat. Are they just as good as OEM parts?

My gut tells me to buy the Original Mercuiser parts but I figured it's worth seeing what others have to say.

I do have a set of GLM water jackets on my motor and they seem okay..are the other parts just as good?

 

[thumpar]

Most recommend OEM for bellows. I used Sierra on mine but I was going to sell it a couple months later so it didn't matter to me. If it was my boat to keep I would say OEM for bellows. For the impeller I have been using Sierra for years.

 

[Grub54891]

Having worked at a different shop in the past,used pretty much exclusively Sierra parts. I didn't know any different back then. Now the shop I work at uses all quicksilver parts,and I have to say, I will only use quicksilver. They seem to last longer,and built a bit more robust. Now I have seen sierra has improved their parts but I haven't used them myself.

 

[stonyloam]

The last impeller I used was a Sierra, and was fine, but I try to change them every other year. For the impeller housing, driveshaft and shift cable bellows, I would go OEM, the shift cable too. From my experience the OEM driveshaft bellows seemed substantially heavier than the Sierra.