Is ice in the bellows bad?

Alumarine

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Feb 22, 2005
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3,684
I'm guessing it is;).
Went down to -8C or 17F last night for about 10 hours.
My block and manifold were drained so they're ok. And there's no water in the lower end.
Was putting the boat into storage so pulled the drive and found a bit of ice.
Will be replacing the bellows and gimble bearing along with the ujoints.

http://
 

Fun Times

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That picture right there is one of the main reasons of many to check and service everything before putting the boat away vs doing it next spring.

Sorry to see you found exactly what you didn't want to find when removing the drive but glad you found it now.

Good luck.:)
 

Grub54891

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Jun 17, 2012
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Ice in the bellows is ok. At least it won't get into the bearings if its solid. Lol. Glad ya found it now instead of at launch in the spring!
 

Alumarine

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Feb 22, 2005
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I'm glad I found it now as well. Gimble bearing is shot too.
Now I know where the funny noise was coming from.
Will replace ujoints and all bellows too.
At first I thought it was full of oil. Luckily it was just ice.
 

thumpar

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Jun 21, 2007
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The bellows was probably full of water on your last outing. Check the drive lube for water. The seal is not made to keep water out.
 

Alumarine

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The bellows was probably full of water on your last outing. Check the drive lube for water. The seal is not made to keep water out.

Thanks for the tip. I did remove the drain screw and just oil came out.
Actually it had a bit of pressure in it when I cracked the vent screw to check the level.
I will be draining it and changing the impeller.
 

Lou C

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Nov 10, 2002
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In the pic, is there a piece of the transom mount missing, looks like something cracked off?
 

Alumarine

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Feb 22, 2005
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3,684
In the pic, is there a piece of the transom mount missing, looks like something cracked off?

Thanks for that. It does look like that but luckily it's just a shadow line from another chunk of ice.
 
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