Volvo gimbal bearing removal

[Rowen25]

Hi guys. Posting from a rookie point of view. I’m pretty mechanical but not knowledgeable of boats. Have an old Volvo penta in my boat 6cy turbo diesel I think maybe model 40a around 1980. Had a split in bellows and got salt into gimbal bearing. Have managed to take off gearbox and remove shaft that was stuck, u joints are buggered as well but can’t figure out how to get to gimbal as per pic. Most things I’ve seen ovce you remove shaft gimbal is exposed and can be pulled out. This one has a shaft exposed so basically wondering if i need to remove engine and get from engine side or the plate around the shaft can be removed from the the back here before I go any further?
Pic attached of what I can see. View attachment IMG_2345.jpeg

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rowen25]

There are bolts as per picture but pretty rusty not sure they would come out and can remove steering helmet to get more room.

 

[Bt Doctur]

believe you dont have a traditional gimbal bearing there you have 2 bearings .one inner and 1 outer look up volvo PDS
search

Volvo Penta PDS and bearing woes!!​

 

[dubs283]

Older volvo sterndrives (aq series colloquially) do not use a gimbal bearing. There is a stub shaft between the engine flex plate/coupler and the u joint assy

The picture shows the aft portion of the stub shaft (center) and the grease seal (green). Fwd of the grease seal is a bearing that is held in place with a snap ring, easy to remove. Most units of this era use two bearings for the stub shaft, one aft, one fwd. To remove the fwd bearing you must remove the engine to access it

The only volvo package I've seen that uses one bearing on the stub shaft (aft) is the four cylinder models. V-6 and V-8 models use two (fore and aft). Guessing a diesel uses both? But not sure, have never seen one of that vintage

To remove the engine you'll need to first remove the bolts (circled in the second post pic) then do the normal engine removal procedure from in the bilge area. You'll most likely need a new rubber "donut" which serves as the aft engine mount/dampener. By the looks of it there's a bit of corrosion and may require heat, penetrating oil, etc...wouldn't be surprised if one or more of the bolts break off during removal

 

[Scott Danforth]

That's an AQ series drive.

The 6 bolts you indicate are the clamp ring bolts holding the PDS in the transom shield

Get a factory service manual

Here is the process of swapping PDS bearings. https://forums.iboats.com/threads/pds-shaft-issues.687012/