Warlord

Has anyone experienced any problems with the ITS transom Assy's inexplicably getting water into the bellows?
We have a pair on a boat here, Brand new June last year. It seems there has been water ingress into both bellows (bellows appear to be perfect) one has suffered far more than the other.

The bearing nose of the drive looks to have sealed perfectly against the ring retained, aft end of the bellows rubber as it should, and the bellows appear totaly undamaged.
I note that there is a turned alluminum (annodized) drive shaft tube that runs through the stand off box part of the assy, and locates into the regular looking bravo gimble casting. Next to this, on the inbaord part of the gimble is where the cooling water hose attaches to the assy.
Is it possible that this tube, when pressed into the gimble is relied upon to seal off a waterway, such as the cooling water passage from the drive? if so, I feel it could be our problem, as I can't see anywhere else that water could get in. It looks to me like water is getting in under pressure between the gimble bearing and the half hearted seal just in front of it. water appears to have leaked back into the bellows and forward along the drive shaft (into the boat)

There is a Fountain over here with twin 600's/ITS and I've heard that this boat is also suffering from mystery water ingress into the ITS units, hence my question here.

As you can see from the pics, at 40 hours old, this leak hasn't done any favours to our kit! sadly, as it's a race boat (put together for last years 'Round Britain Race'), it's unlikely that Merc will be interested in a warranty claim!

Not a pretty sight!

Boat Tech

does merc know it is a race boat ? I would still call them to let them know and see what they say.if all the o rings are there and ok and the bellows sleeve is there and it is the right one.they now have too sizes one for standerd and one for xr drives. take the bellows off and look real good for a hole they are hard to find while installed. look in side the boat for water lines along the sides of the bilge area to make shur there is no other leak some where else leting it get up that hi to poor in to the bellows from the inside.the photo dose not really show the sleeve to the bellows. good luck with that one.

Warlord

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, the (only) hi performance merc dealer here supplied the ITS Transom Assy's and the XR drives, new in May last year, and knew they were for the Round Britain race.

I'm interested in your comment about differing bellow mouldings for normal & XR drives! The 'footprint' (witness marks) in the back end of the bellows where the drive castings have been pressed into / sealed against them suggest all is ok, but who knows.
Do you think I'm barking up the wrong tree with my theory on the extension tube (in which the input shaft runs) sealing (or rather not sealing) a waterway within the gimble casting?

And, is this something that is seen more in the ITS than a regular Bravo Gimble?

cheers for your time, much appreciated.

regards

Jon

Falcon

It is most likely leaking where the bellows seals against the front edge of the drive. Look at the front edge of the bellows at the molding "split line". If I remember right, some bellows had a bad seam there that wouldn't seal properly against the front edge of the drive input. This isn't unique to the ITS. Good hunting.

Boat Tech

Warlord at this point I want to say sorry about the comment of merc having too styles of bellows rings. after doing some home work of my owen at home but not at the dealer I work for. I could not find any info supporting my comment that merc has A NEW RING.all the part #s seam to match for all the years. I had seen it some place hear on this form and I went with it. while looking at your problem At first i was thinking maybe you have A older styly transom assy with A newer style XR drive and there is a special bearing kit you would need to buy to make it work, and A new ring comes with the kit, and I thought I saw some one say the ring might be shorter. but I can not find any differents in part numbers at home. If I ever find any thing more to this then I will let you know.sorry about that. it's hard to tell where the water is coming from normaly it's a hole or bellows not sealed or seated right. hard to believe both transoms are doing it.have your dealer call merc just make shur they don't have a case by case warranty on there hands. And if they do then at the vary least they can tell you what to fix.Good luck with it.

Warlord

Thanks boat tech, much appreciated.

Jon