Locked up mercruiser

[72land]

I have a 93 sea Ray 200 w/ a 4.3 mercruiser and a alpha one gen two. I had the gimbal bearing replaced last year and I got a whole year out of it. The mech. Missed the holes on the bellows. I decided to buy a seloc manual and replace the bellows and new gimbal myself. I went very slow and worked very carefully and got the job done without any real issues other than scratched up hands. I took the boat out the next day and everything seemed ok. The next took some friends out and got about 200 yards from the shore and the boat made a growling noise and died. It was real hard to start almost like something was bound up. It did start but then the same thing happened?
Any advise would help greatly.

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: Locked up mercruiser

Pull the drive and then see if it turns over better.
If yes the drive has an issue, if no the engine side is the problem.

 

[72land]

Re: Locked up mercruiser

I used an alignment tool when putting the out drive back together everything seemed to go together alright. On the first day after the repairs I did notice that when I turn all the way to the port and starboard there would be a slight grinding noise. Is this a sign of misalignment that could cause issues?

 

[72land]

Re: Locked up mercruiser

Any body out there?

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Locked up mercruiser

mis-alignment would not cause the motor to be hard to turn over, no oil in the drive or a hydro-lock issue maybe

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Locked up mercruiser

typically water in the gimbal bellows rusts the input yoke seal in the drive and the upper case oil leaks into the bellows then the upper runs dry until........ POOF, no upper.
no tech I know of would ever replace a gimbal bearing without also replacing the bellows.
if the gimbal bearing I replaced was due to water intrusion it would also get a yoke seal surface inspection prior to reinstallation.
as well as ujoints.