Leakage from Engine Bellows

Hello all - I have an '87 Bayliner Capri with a Volvo Penta AQ131A with a Penta 270 Sterndrive. The former owners didn't take very good care of the boat, and as such it seems one part after another decides to retire on me every trip to the lake.

My latest adventure involved a whitish-brown grease leaking from a two-finger sized hole in the u-joint bellows (see attached pic). I'm pretty sure the leak started either when we were trailering the boat, or just after we pulled it ashore - so I don't think there would me much if any water damage. We were swimming off the back of the boat most of the day and never noticed anything.

I've read the posts here concerning replacing the bellows and intend on making these repairs shortly, but I wanted to make sure this was the only repair I had to make based on others experiences in the forums.

Thanks for your help!

Re: Leakage from Engine Bellows

Welcome to the world of danged #@*& boats. Er, ah, I mean "classics in need of some TLC" .

There is plenty of information and experience available on this forum as well as others. Pretty soon it'll become your boat and you can't blame things on the PO anymore. Boats require maintenance. Some parts wear and some degrade over time. It's like the direction of the earths' rotation - it's just the way it is!

If you've got a torn bellows then you'll need to remove the gear case. Since there is water inside, it makes sense to replace the u-joints. PDS bearing and seal are accessible so replacing those is cheap at this point. Seals and o-rings for the upper gearbox are in order as are pressure and leakdown tests when you get things back together.

You say that you've allready researched the parts needed so you know these are common tasks. Read the manual, order the parts, and read the forums. You'll get there - ask when you get stuck on something - someone has been there allready and people are willing to help.

Re: Leakage from Engine Bellows

Thanks for the tips - I'm assuming the gooze coming from the bellows indicates there was some water damage?

Re: Leakage from Engine Bellows

The substance you see is grease and water from the either the u-joints, the upper gearbox, the flywheel cover bearing (PDS bearing), or a combination of all of the above.

Re: Leakage from Engine Bellows

i just repleaced my upper bellow on my volvo 280 along with the upper seal because i had oil in there, do not wait to change it as water will damage more than just the ujoints. all in all it was not hard to do the only thing that took time was getting the ujoin splines to line up with the output shaft becasue you can not see what you doing do to the bellow being installed.