Alpha one gen 2 lube monitor hose leak

[dlogvine]

I looked at my boat in the storage and found a little puddle of gear lube under the outdrive, right below the gimbal. Upon closer inspection I found a crack in the gear lube monitor hose. Now, is there a less invasive way to fix it, cut the cracked part out, the crack is located very close to the plastic nipple on the gimbal, or do I have to take the outdrive and gimbal off to reach this location? I'll post a pic later today. Also even though the rest of the gear lube monitor hose looks good, should I completely replace it, just in case there is some unnoticed deterioration? Thx

 

[Bt Doctur]

the best way it to remove the gimbal, cut the hose off the plastic fitting and replace with a hose 2 inches longer.
any hose rated for oil will work.

 

[Scotvl]

Bt Doctur is right and removing the gimbal is the best way to do it since the rest of you bellows probably need replacing if they are the same age as the hose that cracked. I had the same cracked hose on my Bravo 3 a couple of seasons ago but the rest of my rubber was still in great condition so I decided to only replace the cracked hose.
It was a very tedious repair without removing the outer gimbal hat but I used a pair of extended needle nose pliers and an exacto knife and bright flashlight. It took over an hour laying on my back but I got it done with a few scrapes and lots of cursing.
Heres the needle nose pliers that I used, good luck.

https://www.amazon.ca/Triplett-Cross...SIN=B009K99JPE

 

[Fettb]

I recommend cutting that hose and pulling the gimbal. That lube hose is likely connected to a cheap plastic transom fitting that will break easily if you are not very careful. I just broke mine this week and learned a very expensive lesson as my boat requires a motor pull to replace that stupid plastic fitting. Next time I cut that line so that I can ease it off. Of course, next time will likely be a non issue as I will be replacing that plastic POS with a brass fitting...

As noted above, you probably need new bellows anyway so just do the whole job while you're suffering. I also changed out my shift cable since that needs to come out to get the gimble off.

Good luck and have fun! There are lots of smart folks on here who are willing to give good advice!

 

[harringtondav]

You were more lucky than me Fettb . I'm with you on replacing bellows, etc. even though they have life left, once you've gone thu the pain of looking them in the face. I did deep maintenance this year, made necessary by failed trim sensors. Since I was looking at a bare gimbal plate I decided to change my 22 yr. old shift cable - that was working fine.

A classic Greek tragedy. The slotted cable fitting socked opened up and slipped, so I pulled out the cable core so I could get a 14 mm spark plug socket on. Oooops. Merc designed that fitting at 14.2 mm., and the cable core wouldn't thread back thru the inside of the sheath so I could just walk away. Ended up cutting off the cable sheath and drilling out the terminal pipe plug. I installed the new cable with teflon tape, and as much torque as needed to hold the fitting in place and keep zero pressure water out of the shift slide cavity.

So lucky you.