Hi,
I am in the process of replacing the bellows. U-joint bellows leaked last year.
I also inspected U-joints. They look OK. Turn very smoothly. I can?t feel any roughness in their rotation. No sound. There are only a few tiny dots of rust here and there on the surface. I did not touch the orange rubber seals yet.
The U-joints were all covered by a fair amount of grease (must be coming from the gimbal bearing), all over, and that saved them, I guess, from water damage. I cleaned the dirty grease with WD-40 and I plan placing them back, trying them over the summer (I use my boat very little), and then re-inspecting them in the fall.
My question is, what can I do to improve their chances of survival?
If they would be greaseable, I would certainly try to put in as much new grease as possible, pushing the contaminated grease (and water, if any) out, rotating them during the process, etc. But, they are non-greasable. Instead of zerks there are some kind of plugs, screwed in, but with ROUND heads. Those may be hard to get out. I could take a file and try to flatten the sides of those round heads, to be able to grab them with pliers. Not sure if this is doable. Is it feasible to get them out, and replace with normal zerks, in order to lube??
Or, I should lift and slide out the orange rubber seals. And grease straight underneath?
Or, I should not even attempt anything like that? Should I simply spray some light oil onto the assembly and put it back, till the fall?
Any other advises? This must be a typical case.
[FONT="]The engine is 1993 4.3LX/V6 serial number OF0244564. The transom is OF058634. The drive is OD886515 (Alpha One Gen II).[/FONT]
Thanks!
I am in the process of replacing the bellows. U-joint bellows leaked last year.
I also inspected U-joints. They look OK. Turn very smoothly. I can?t feel any roughness in their rotation. No sound. There are only a few tiny dots of rust here and there on the surface. I did not touch the orange rubber seals yet.
The U-joints were all covered by a fair amount of grease (must be coming from the gimbal bearing), all over, and that saved them, I guess, from water damage. I cleaned the dirty grease with WD-40 and I plan placing them back, trying them over the summer (I use my boat very little), and then re-inspecting them in the fall.
My question is, what can I do to improve their chances of survival?
If they would be greaseable, I would certainly try to put in as much new grease as possible, pushing the contaminated grease (and water, if any) out, rotating them during the process, etc. But, they are non-greasable. Instead of zerks there are some kind of plugs, screwed in, but with ROUND heads. Those may be hard to get out. I could take a file and try to flatten the sides of those round heads, to be able to grab them with pliers. Not sure if this is doable. Is it feasible to get them out, and replace with normal zerks, in order to lube??
Or, I should lift and slide out the orange rubber seals. And grease straight underneath?
Or, I should not even attempt anything like that? Should I simply spray some light oil onto the assembly and put it back, till the fall?
Any other advises? This must be a typical case.
[FONT="]The engine is 1993 4.3LX/V6 serial number OF0244564. The transom is OF058634. The drive is OD886515 (Alpha One Gen II).[/FONT]
Thanks!
). From the sound of it, you should be just fine.
