Mercruiser 5.0 Bellows & Water in the Bilge

[dmillerss]

The shift bellows failed and I got a lot of water in the boat, and in both the other bellows as well. I was able to power in to shore without a problem and let it drain, but evidently water splashed up on the starter as well. So I think all three bellows are going to need to be replaced, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I should have them look at and what the long term damage might be?

Thx in advance -- DMiller

 

[achris]

Gimbal bearing, Uni joints, drive front seal surface on the yoke. All these would have water in them. As it sounds like the water was above the crankshaft level, a lot will have been splashed up around the engine. Water will have gotten into the starter motor and all the cables connected to it. Was it fresh (lake) or salt (sea) water?

 

[dmillerss]

Salt water. Do you think I should go ahead and replace the starter then while everything else is going on?

 

[achris]

I was hoping, for your sake, it was fresh water. Salt water has longterm issues. Water will have seeped into the ends of the electrical wires, that'll mean they have already started to corrode. Salt water in a starter motor mean "goodnight start motor"... if when you pull the drive there's water in the Uni joint bellows, salt in the gimbal bearing, and the unis.

basically, anything that got a saltwater bath has or will have issues.

When I had my boat shop we had a boat come in that had a similar water ingress problem as you have. The boat had twin 3L engines. We replaced, on both engines, anything electrical. Harness, alternator, starter motor, distributor, circuit breaker, we stripped and cleaned the carb, and we pulled the engines and washed them down with copious quantities of fresh water, before drying them and repainting them.

Chris. ...

 

[Scott Danforth]

Replace your starter and battery cables

Clean the salt off the motor, and from the flywheel.

after everything is clean and dry, hose everything down with fluid film or boeshield to protect it