Update . . .
Boy do I hate bell housing & bellows work . . .
I started off the day with my supplies for cleaning the u-joint bellows flange and prepping for the bellows installation
I replaced the exhaust bellows on the starboard drive with a 'tube' since the port drive already had 'the tube'. My preference is for tubes as they are lower maintenance IMO.
Then I finished prepping the bellows flanges and installed the bellows on both drives
Getting the bell housings back on and all connected to everything is a real chore. . . I suppose with practice it would not be too bad, but as a one-off it was tough. Anyway, I got the housings loosely connected and then pulled the u-joint bellows through the bell housing where it is secured in place by the sleeve to make a water tight seal. At that point, I realized that the bellows tool that I ordered was not needed, only if I was going to do the exhaust bellows :facepalm:
I used my alignment tool along with the sleeve insertion tool to install the bellows sleeve.
Here is the bellows and the water intake hose installed. I like how Mercruiser designed the water intake hose & fitting , , , very clever.
Here are the transom/bell housings all done. I did not have time to install the outdrives, so that will have to wait for next weekend.
In doing this repair, I found the toughest thing was to make sure not to break anything while taking things apart, considering it is used in salt water. Also, tough was figuring out how to dis-assemble and re-assemble the oil line and shift cable into the bell housing.