wild thing

Hello


I was hoping someone could please give me the heads up on replacing my shift cable boot, and drive bellows.what parts I will need ,can I lift the drive off by hand, do I need any special tools? Thank you

RedDog382

Wild thing,

First thing I would do is get a Mercury drive service manual. It shows step by step how to perform this service. You would need a special Mercury tool to seat the ring and Mercury adhesive to seal the bellows properly. If you do not have a lot of experience with outdrives, you might want to consider having it done by someone certified by Mercury. If not done properly, your boat could sink!

formula31

Not to mention that it is generally a pain in the a##. The Bravo's are not too bad but like Reddog said, the more you do these, the easier it is. The first time is a wiener.

LLcoolBaja

I just got done doing servicing my outdrives by replacing the shift, and u-joint bellows, and gimball bearing this last weekend and there are several things I learned.

1. Buy the service manuals as previously suggested. Read and Read them again if you are going to do this. There is also some good instructions on Sterndrives.com, check them out and print them. Again... read them. Be the manuals.

2. If you are changing the bellows because of water leaks, make sure that your swivel shaft seal is not leaking, or you have a rotten transom. I have learned a very powerful lesson: I should have investigated my leak before I started replacing everything. The actual leak I was chasing was in the upper swivel shaft seal. Because I was in a rush and uneducated about this type of boat repair, I am going to have to completely re-do the starboard side to get back to the swivel shaft. Make sure you know where the leak is coming from. If you are doing the bellows change because you think it is time. Forget about it!!!!

3. You will need help getting the drive off and REALLY need help getting the drive back on. I took the first one off by myself and nearly killed myself. They are heavy, greasy and awkward to handle. Otherwise most of the other work is a 1-man job.

4. Speaking of one-man job...grab something to sit on when you are working on the drives. Don't kill your back leaning over.

5. BIG PAINFULL LESSON: Use heat when trying to remove the hinge pin bolts. Mercruiser uses SUPER red locktite on these pins. I was stubborn and decided I didn't need heat and ended up stripping out the threads right out of the bellhousing. This stupid mistake cost me time and money putting in stainless steel Keenserts into the bellhousing. Cost of new bellhousing=$600

6. When putting the drive back on. Make sure you have the drive in neutral so you can spin the prop and line of the splines.

7. Did I mention reading the manual and getting the exact supplies and parts they recommend.

8. Buy the hinge pin tool and the (for lack of better term or the proper term) the water hose expander tool. You will need this expander tool to squeeze the water pick-up hose back into place when you put the bellhousing back on! I used a 1" keyhole wood drill bit and some pliers on the first drive, DON"T do it, buy the expander tool. It makes it much easier.

9. Buy the gimball and u-joint grease, along with the separate spline grease. Don't suffer nightmares like I did because you used the spline grease on the gimball bearing and u-joint. After the cold sweats I bought the gimball grease and re-lubed everything correctly. Peacefullllll sleeeppppp

Hope this helps! So many people from this site offered their help and opinions, that I think it is most deserving that I lend some help also

screebar

Completely agree with LLcoolbaja, I used a 2x4 to drive the ID clamp into the bellows, other than that. Do it by the book like LLcoolbaja said. Especially #2, my pivot seal was leaking. I replaced the shift and u-joint bellows.. and the pivot seal still leaked, ha! I found that my pivot shaft was pitted so bad that a new seal would not work. Always use mercruiser replacement parts. The resulting damage from a half-a$$ job, costs more in the end. I know first hand.

screebar

My mistake, it was not a 2x4 but a piece of wood none-the-less.