I bought a 1987 24' marathon walkaround style fishing boat for $1000 (down from $3000 and now I know why) with trailer. The seller had the drive to port already so I could see the bellows and they looked good on the starboard side, no cracking etc. I knew it needed a new prop, full tank of fuel drained, and new sparkplugs.
Did all that, got it running and changed the gear oil in the outdrive. I though I was ready for the water until I tried to figure out what the wire coming out the top of the sterndrive was. I turned the drive to starboard and to my horror it was the bellows wire. It looks like it was struck by the u-joint or something and tore through the boot.
Question: What would have caused this and can I prevent it?
Anyhow, I ordered a bellows kit with a new gimbal bearing and was working on replacing everything this morning when I found more...
The bellows were full of gear oil from what I suspect is the seal around the yoke to the outdrive, not good news. The gimbal bearing was trash but I had a new one so It didn't bother me, engine alignment was perfect, but it's with a worn bearing too so I took it with skepticism until the new one is installed. While cleaning out the bearing area I went to pump grease to clean out the hole before installing the new one and there isn't one there. "Okay" I said to myself, "just find a way to fix it and install a new one"... then I realized the tube to the bearing is gone and they used some kind of liquid metal epoxy to seal it up.
Question: Has my gimbal bearing essentially become a "replace every 2 years" item? Or is there some way to fix this that I haven't thought of?
I can't attach photos here for some reason, I will have to contact a mod to see why but for now I uploaded them all to Google Drive, link below.
Pictures
I'm trying to decide if I grease the snot out of the new gimbal bearing and install as is, or try to fix it. I'm about to look through the manual now to see how to get the shaft out and replace the seal to the upper outdrive, I fear what I will find inside. There's always way more work than you expect isn't there.
Did all that, got it running and changed the gear oil in the outdrive. I though I was ready for the water until I tried to figure out what the wire coming out the top of the sterndrive was. I turned the drive to starboard and to my horror it was the bellows wire. It looks like it was struck by the u-joint or something and tore through the boot.
Question: What would have caused this and can I prevent it?
Anyhow, I ordered a bellows kit with a new gimbal bearing and was working on replacing everything this morning when I found more...
The bellows were full of gear oil from what I suspect is the seal around the yoke to the outdrive, not good news. The gimbal bearing was trash but I had a new one so It didn't bother me, engine alignment was perfect, but it's with a worn bearing too so I took it with skepticism until the new one is installed. While cleaning out the bearing area I went to pump grease to clean out the hole before installing the new one and there isn't one there. "Okay" I said to myself, "just find a way to fix it and install a new one"... then I realized the tube to the bearing is gone and they used some kind of liquid metal epoxy to seal it up.
Question: Has my gimbal bearing essentially become a "replace every 2 years" item? Or is there some way to fix this that I haven't thought of?
I can't attach photos here for some reason, I will have to contact a mod to see why but for now I uploaded them all to Google Drive, link below.
Pictures
I'm trying to decide if I grease the snot out of the new gimbal bearing and install as is, or try to fix it. I'm about to look through the manual now to see how to get the shaft out and replace the seal to the upper outdrive, I fear what I will find inside. There's always way more work than you expect isn't there.
