Should I get water in the exhaust bellows?

[Loman]

I am relatively new to boating and have been resotriing an older (86) bayliner. It has a volvo penta 225D with 280 outdrive. The ujoint had failed and when I tore it apart realised the bearings from the motor had also failed. I have replaced all of that including the flywheel housing which was not very good. I was able to find a used part with what appeared to be good bearings and seals on the flywheel housing. I also replaced both belwos at that time. After it is all back together and everything seems to be working I noticed that the exhaust bellows picked up water. It seems like it has a pin hole for it to drain or something becuase it dris out but I was not sure if that was what I should expect or not. There is also a small amount of oil in the lower bellows that is clearly from the stern drive. I checked the upper bellows and there was a very small amount of water there (maybe a tablespoon or so) and a bit of oil too. I am noticing the stern drive oil is dropping some each time I use it.

I have read some things that that make me concerned to start tearing things apart regarding getting the bearings preloaded properly (which I don't fully understand). I have also read about pulling the upper gear box off and replacing the o-rings etc. which seems fairly straight forward. I suspect that may be a problem as it was a bit loose when I started sorting this out which could easily have damaged O-rings.

Can someone help me know what to expect and suggest what I can do to either repair things, or test to see if a particual part has failed. Most importantly I am looking for advice on what parts of the stern drive I should avoid tearing into due to the need for special tools and more knowledge than I have.

Thanks for any help

 

[skydiveD30571]

Re: Should I get water in the exhaust bellows?

Go find your service manual here and start reading up on drive repair.

Yes the exhaust bellows will be wet. That is where the raw cooling water exits the engine so of course there will be water in it. The small pinholes are there so the exhaust piping can drain while the boat is being stored. Since you have gear oil in both bellows and are losing some with each trip, it's important to drain the drive and pressure test it to find your leak. If oil is coming out, water can get in, and things won't last very long like that.