Broken engine to outdrive - what am I looking at?

[arrkerr]

We trusted our beautiful boat with an OMC 5.0 EFI to a mechanic that turned out to be a real disaster. He pulled the outdrive for some reason and then disappeared.

I was about to re-attach the outdrive and noticed that the bellows were not connected and looking further the hose clamp is attached on the engine side but the metal is broken after it.

I am wondering how serious this is, and what it would take to repair/replace it. Can I just get a new set of bellows and re-attach since the hose clamp seems fine? How in the world did the metal get broken in the first place? Is this a replaceable part?

Hopefully a picture is worth a thousand words, so pictures are attached.

 

[Scott Danforth]

your u-joints were slaping around in there contacting the gimbal

time to pull the rest of the drive parts and find all that is broken and go from there.

 

[arrkerr]

your u-joints were slaping around in there contacting the gimbal

time to pull the rest of the drive parts and find all that is broken and go from there.

Why would the u-joints be slapping around, they seem OK to me. I can't think how there would be enough play unless the bolts were loose, and they were not.

Can I replace the gimbal? And do I even need to if I can replace the U-joints if they are the problem and bolt it all back together?

 

[kenny nunez]

The boot comes out by prying under if in the pivot housing. Get a 1/2” Allen wrench to remove the housing, there is a snap ring holding thr exhaust bellows. Just support the housing to keep a the weight off the shift cable. Take more pictures of the broken area so we can get a better look.

 

[dubs283]

You need a new gimbal housing.

Haven't been any new ones manufactured in 30 years. Could find a donor boat or luck out and someone somewhere has one, ebay?

At this point seeing as how you have to pull the motor and transom assy maybe just go with a mercruiser package, still plenty of parts and service available

 

[Grub54891]

I have to ask: Why was it at the mechanic? Seems to me it had an issue and that would be why. Yup, you need a new assembly. Just had a volvo in the shop for blown u-joints, same thing happend. Wrecked the entire thing.

 

[Lou C]

Might have had water in the bellows which caused the ujoint failure. You can find those housings on eBay. You have to check part numbers and get one that matches yours. There are subtle differences from 1986-1993 and then again from 1994-1998. Or if you have a 94-98 then it’s the same as a Volvo SX of the same year. I was able to pick up a complete transom assembly for mine on eBay for $450. Trim rams hoses & all.