ujoint, exhaust bellows,trim send/lim replacement coming up and need a bit of advice

[caddylover]

Good day. i have a 91 merc alpha 1 gen 2 and I have ordered all my parts for the mentioned replacement. My exhaust bellows is ripped and upon further inspection i noticed that the ujoint bellows is starting to fray just a little as i can see a bit of the spiral wire. The boat used to be used alot when we were younger but now that we are older and have small kids we are lucky to get it out in the water for more than two weeks at a time.

In any case, i am going to tackle this myself and see if i can get it done. I am pretty mechanically inclined as i've changed out rads, waterpumps, alternators, brakes etc on other vehicles, but never done anything on a boat except adjust the idle screw on the carb, lol.

My biggest question is taking off the bell housing after removing the outdrive. I need to get a bit of room to fish the wires through the transom for the trim sender/limiter. I am not going to change out the shift cable as that was done not too long ago from what i can remember. So, once i take off the hinge pins and take off the exhaust and ujoint bellows from the transom end, am i able to just pull that housing off and it will give me the foot or two of room that i need to place the housing on a stool or something? OR do i need to disconnect the shift cable from inside the boat first so i can pull some of the wire through after loosening the worm gear clamp from the shift cable bellows?

If i have to disconnect the shift cable from the inside, will i have to do any adjustments when connecting it back together?

thx in advance.

 

[Raypex]

Re: ujoint, exhaust bellows,trim send/lim replacement coming up and need a bit of adv

Here is the best do it yourself site that i've found. I think this will help get you on your way.
Good luck!
http://sterndrivetools.com/selectjob.html

Good day. i have a 91 merc alpha 1 gen 2 and I have ordered all my parts for the mentioned replacement. My exhaust bellows is ripped and upon further inspection i noticed that the ujoint bellows is starting to fray just a little as i can see a bit of the spiral wire. The boat used to be used alot when we were younger but now that we are older and have small kids we are lucky to get it out in the water for more than two weeks at a time.

In any case, i am going to tackle this myself and see if i can get it done. I am pretty mechanically inclined as i've changed out rads, waterpumps, alternators, brakes etc on other vehicles, but never done anything on a boat except adjust the idle screw on the carb, lol.

My biggest question is taking off the bell housing after removing the outdrive. I need to get a bit of room to fish the wires through the transom for the trim sender/limiter. I am not going to change out the shift cable as that was done not too long ago from what i can remember. So, once i take off the hinge pins and take off the exhaust and ujoint bellows from the transom end, am i able to just pull that housing off and it will give me the foot or two of room that i need to place the housing on a stool or something? OR do i need to disconnect the shift cable from inside the boat first so i can pull some of the wire through after loosening the worm gear clamp from the shift cable bellows?

If i have to disconnect the shift cable from the inside, will i have to do any adjustments when connecting it back together?

thx in advance.

 

[Evil Eagle]

Re: ujoint, exhaust bellows,trim send/lim replacement coming up and need a bit of adv

Be sure to watch the cable, when I pulled my bell housing it cracked the cable shroud, so replacing it was necessary. And if your's is like mine the engine will be out of alignment so you'll need to align it before you put the outdrive back on.

 

[caddylover]

Re: ujoint, exhaust bellows,trim send/lim replacement coming up and need a bit of adv

water pump was replaced and unit resealed in 2009. After that, we put on about 4 hours of boating time till this date, so i would assume that when they put the outdrive back on that they realigned the unit (I would hope!!) or checked with the alignment bar to ensure it was good at least.

I guess my main question was whether i had to disconnect the shift cable from the engine before pulling the bell housing off and if so, when i attach it again, will there be any quirky adjustments to be made to the cable?

thx for your help so far gents.

 

[Evil Eagle]

Re: ujoint, exhaust bellows,trim send/lim replacement coming up and need a bit of adv

I pulled the cable wrap off from inside the boatand was able to drop the bell housing to the ground without disconnecting it, but I also cracked the sheath so be careful if you try that. Btw, fwiw I think the engines get out of alignment from the stringers moving, I don't think it's correlated to how many hours are on it.

 

[caddylover]

Re: ujoint, exhaust bellows,trim send/lim replacement coming up and need a bit of adv

thanks EE and Ray. i will pull the cable wrap off on the inside and pull it through (after disconnecting the worm gear clamp from shift cable bellows) and be carefull. I just want to move it over and place it to the side about 12-18" so i have room to manouver without adding a bunch of extra work. Dealing with my young kids is a full time job in itself so i'll make this a few weekend project.

 

[tylermcclintock]

Re: ujoint, exhaust bellows,trim send/lim replacement coming up and need a bit of adv

I would definately check alignment while your in there. Its always good to check everytime your drive is off, if it is out of alignment it will eat away at your gimbal bearing and your engine coupler, not to mention it will be a pain to get your drive back on. Might as well swap gimbal bearing while your at it. And dont forget bellows adhesive when you put your new bellows on.

Best of Luck