BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

[Plotus]

Thanks to Marvinjansen for this pic on his post But if you see through the gunk, on the slide to the left end is a boss and directly below, a ? set screw? Is it a set screw? does it turn to the left to loosen? Also as for changing the Bellows on the Alpha1, do the bellows tool actually help much? I'm finding stories of little alternate stuff for working on these boats instead of special tools. I don't mind having to get a couple things like an alignment tool or a bellows tool or the Mac flex driver, but I just learned that the pivot was just a 1/2" allen wrench rather than the special tool. So guys, those of you who have changed the bellows..... how usefull is the bellows tool? Fortunatly when I pulled my out drive there was only broken wire, the bellows had only a half inch rip in the seam which would only leak on left turns, and only a tiny bit at that. So my gimbal and joints were pretty nice, without any apreciable rust at all on the gimbal and the joints perfect. One thing though, that dang slide's being a dadgum errrr........... trying to get the set screw to loosen......

 

[Don S]

Re: BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

The only bellows tool is for the exhaust bellows, not the ujoint bellows. Others claim to have installed the ex bellows without the tool, but I have never been able to do it.

Fortunatly when I pulled my out drive there was only broken wire, the bellows had only a half inch rip in the seam whick would only leak on left turns, and only a tiny bit at that.

and the water runs out as fast as it comes in. You need a new gimbal bearing and probably ujoints as well, water causes rust, and rust is a killer on bearings.

Here is a link to the OEM service manual, might want to look through it, you will find the answers to your other questions.

http://www.4shared.com/document/zz_5pj9o/Service_Manual_06.html

 

[StevNimrod]

Re: BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

I've changed my bellows and never used the bellows tool. Will it make life easier? Maybe. Absolutely needed? Hasn't been for me. Other's may chime in with different results.

On the slide, sometimes it's more time/sanity efficient to break and replace rather than spending a lot of time getting something loose. Especially if you were going to replace the shift cable + shift cable bellows while you're in there. The kit would come with a new slide and hardware.

Since you had water in there you're also going to be looking at a gimbal bearing and u-joints. You really don't want to be doing this twice in the same season and you really really don't want to trash a bunch of other stuff not doing it right the first time.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

I did the bellows with out the exhaust bellow tool once, it a pain in the.....

Here's what I cobbled up when I did the bellow last time, worked perfect.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=358490&highlight=bellows+tool

 

[ziggy]

Re: BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

trying to get the set screw to loosen

remove the wire and then turn ccw to loosen. it's just a hex drive set screw w/ a hole in it for the wire.
i've never tried to do the exhaust bellows w/o the proper tool. the proper tool really makes life easy when installing the exhaust bellows though. as stated before, no install tool for the drive shaft bellows on an alpha1.

 

[nikon]

Re: BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

It made life easier on me, I had ordered the tool before I started working on the bellows though....many a friends have borrowed it, but It'll come in handy next time I have to do the bellows.

 

[dn010]

Re: BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

I did mine without the tool a few weeks ago... PITA! It took probably over a half hour of wrenching my hands and fingers to get it installed. I ended up using a pry bar with a 90 degree angled piece on the front to pull it on the housing from the inside. If that didn't work I was ready to cut the exhaust bellows in half and call it an exhaust tube...

 

[brhodes]

Re: BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

+1 on fishrdan's tool it worked pretty well, I stole his idea last spring, thanks fishrdan!

 

[Stratohammer]

Re: BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

I made do with a long 3/8 or 7/16 bolt with a large area fender washer on the end. It grabbed the convolution and I worked the aft end of the bellows on one side at a time. I'm sure the correct tool is easier to use, but this is the first time I've had to change the bellows since 1989, so I'm OK with a minor struggle.

Mike

 

[hoot]

Re: BELLOWS Tool, do you need one?

I read somewhere that you can attach the exhaust bellows to the easy end, let it sit overnight, and it will take the shape of the housing. Then you remove the bellows, flip it, and it fits over the other end of the housing. This is what I did and it worked for me.