Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

[wellcraft-classic210]

When doing my winter servicing on my 1988 wellcrat classic 210 with merc 5.0 and alpha one outdrive;


I found milky oil in my outdrive & then found water in the bellows after deciding to pull the outdrive for a closer look

I pressurized my outdrive with a modified fitting mounted on a radiator pressure tester & found that the seal on the propeller shaft leaks at aroud 7 PSI



This has lead to the following questions;

--How is the water getting in the bellows? Are thier other likely sources oother than the bellows itself? (The shift shaft looks suspicioous to me as it spins quite freely. )

--What checks should I be making on the bellows assembly and the outdrive itself before considering resealing it.

-- Anybody had luck in making thier own tools to disassemble the large spanner nuts on the prop and drive shafts.

-- Any other useful advice on attempting this mayself is also greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

 

[CharlieB]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

Outdrive should be both pressure and vacuum tested, and must pass both tests.

The proper tool for the job saves time and reduces the possibility of damaging parts.

Water inside the bellows is most often caused by a pinhole or tear in between one of the 'pleats', replace the bellows, clean the contact surfaces and seal with a coating of bellows adhesive.

Check the gimbal bearing and U-joints, water can displace their lube and seriously shorten their life. It may be cheap insurance to change them while you have the drive off now.

Water in the bellows can be 'screwed' into the upper gearcase past the seal during normal operation, that upper seal is designed to keep oil IN, and does not keep water out very well once submerged.

 

[JDusza]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

How many bellows you got on this thing? Which one had the water? Do you have any water coming in to the hull?

Concur with CharlieB. Once you're in this deep you should consider gimbal bearing and u-joint maintenance as well as changing other bellows. I have seen outdrives without maintenance where the drive splines freeze on the drive shaft. Not a fun repair.

I am not too familiar with this specific unit but would encourage you to perform whatever you can for this teardown will take a while, so go the extra mile on surrounding components.

 

[wellcraft-classic210]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

Gents

Thanks for the replies.


I am thinking the root cause was a pin hole in the drive shaft bellows & the outdirve aslo needs to be resealed.


Planning to replace the gimbal bearing , ujoints, all 3 bellows, & reseal the drive (including the shift and prop shafts) .


I have a manual & found a bearing retainer tool on ebay foor $50 & will most likely go with that to avoid part damage.

2 more questions;

--The prop shaft has about 1/8 of end play --- should I plan on addressing that or is that normal.
-- Thier is a small hole above the prop shaft gear box on the front that appears to be a drain hole. What is its purpose.

 

[fmalott]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

the prop shaft play is normal i asked this question 2 month ago and the experts said that's normal

 

[Bondo]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

2 more questions;

--The prop shaft has about 1/8 of end play --- should I plan on addressing that or is that normal.
-- Thier is a small hole above the prop shaft gear box on the front that appears to be a drain hole. What is its purpose.

Ayuh,.... The propshaft floats fore, 'n aft, 'bout that much...
Should be Zero, side to side movement....

The little drain hole, drains the inner wet cavity of the housings...

 

[wellcraft-classic210]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

Well its finally spring in Vermont.

I serviced the outdrive over the winter & saved the bellows until spring as its a outside / warm weather type of job.

As you can see from the pic showing a slit in the bellows that was apparently the ROOT CAUSE. It was actually worm a little thin in the damaged area and the bellow next to it. Needless to say it was overdue for service. I was told by a fellow at work with that his bellows was over 10 years old and that they drive shaft bellows rarely fails -- this is apparently not true. (Lesson learned).


The repair has included the following items to date.

Flushing out drive due to the water that had entered through the drive shaft while running with the small leak. , resealing the prop shaft and changing the impeller while I had it apart ( luckily the drive did not suffer more damage which is a good argument for using the proper Marine gear lube as its designed to work with some water present), and now replacing all the belows & gimbal bearing. I also found worn /damaged wires on the trim switch which I will replace as well.

I enclosed a few pics of the puller I used to take out the gimbal bearing and of the hose clamp positions. The slide hammer was not much help but it came quite easily with the force produced from using the threads. I gave a few taps with a mallet on my alignemt tool prior to inserting the puller to hel loosen things up.

 

[wellcraft-classic210]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

A few more pictures showing the remaing hose clamp positions and the bell housing with the bellows removed.

 

[cyclops2]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

Way to go !!

 

[Weirthit]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

Talk about coincidence. I am currently working on my 1988 Wellcraft 210 Classic with an Alpha drive. My u-joints were knocking so I am replacing them along with all of the bellows, gimble bearing, trim switches and shift cables. The people on this site were very helpful in steering me towards a #6 service manual.

It looks like you took off your bell housing. I may need to do this in order to get the through hull fitting for the trim switch wires and think it might be the best way to clean the bellows surfaces. Did you use a 1/2" allen wrench and it popped right off?

 

[series60]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

It looks like you took off your bell housing. I may need to do this in order to get the through hull fitting for the trim switch wires and think it might be the best way to clean the bellows surfaces. Did you use a 1/2" allen wrench and it popped right off?

It takes a special little tool to remove the bell housing., and about 110'#s removal torque.

 

[wellcraft-classic210]

Re: Water in bellows and outdrive alpha one --- root cause & repair questions?

I used a 1/2 allen wrench with a 12 inch pipe scrap & the 2 bell housing bolts broke loose without issue or the need for heat. I am going to cut it and mount it in a socket for reassembly torquing.

-- The special tool is nice but not a necessity. If you do buy the special tool avoid the cheap ones as they tend to twist and break off if not hardended properly-- (I have heard more than 1 complaint about this )

As you may be aware -- If you do get into the bellows its all best done following a procedure as it does have a certain order of assembly. I have found the ones at mercstuff.com very helpful along with Clymer manuals and the online manual you mentioned above. You will most likely need the exhast bellows installation tool.

My trim sender screws were corroded. I was able to remove them with a hammer, manual impact driver, phillips bit & tlc. (See pic below )I did not want to apply heat and ruin the switches. It turns out the switches are getting replaced afterall. After looking at the mercstuff.com bellows repair post I don't think the wires were secured properly as they were not tied off above the drive shaft bellows. I will look tonight.

 

[wellcraft-classic210]

sift shaft seal alpha one-- new one is much larger ??

sift shaft seal alpha one-- new one is much larger ??

I applied heat to my shift shaft when pulling it apart to replace the bellows & thougt it would be a good idea to replace the seal on my 5.0 merc 1988 alpha one.

The parts that arrived are different than what's on thier now. The bushing is much larger and will protrude into the exhaust cavity.

It seems like it will work but i am not not sure if its optimal.

Just wondering if anyone has seen this before.

Thanks for reading

 

[ktbarrentine]

Re: sift shaft seal alpha one-- new one is much larger ??

Re: sift shaft seal alpha one-- new one is much larger ??

What part number did you put in to get that style seal? I would think you wanted a 23-806036a1 seal kit.... I recently saw a post in the mercruiser forum asking about seals for a gen II and this type (you have pictured) was discussed... Although when I looked up your part number, it says its for a R/MR/Alpha1. Don S?? I know you have the clue! Here is the previous thread I was referring to:
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=534467

 

[Don S]

Re: sift shaft seal alpha one-- new one is much larger ??

Re: sift shaft seal alpha one-- new one is much larger ??

That is the aftermarket parts for the newest bushing kit for your drive, and it will work.
Go to this link http://www.mercurypartsexpress.com/us/parts-search.html#epc::model_find punch in your model and SN and find the OEM part number, then convert to aftermarket.
One reason the aftermarket stuff is cheaper, is the OEM parts probably come with instructions and updated parts when it differs from the service manual.

 

[wellcraft-classic210]

Re: sift shaft seal alpha one-- new one is much larger ??

Re: sift shaft seal alpha one-- new one is much larger ??

Don S.
You were 100% correct (As usual) -

I was hesitant with the obvious change in the size of the parts & knowing these were aftermarket parts but they fit up nicely. Good to know its an upgrade.

I will try to post some pics when time allows.

Also -- Great link for finding parts!!!!