Upper bearing??? I have no idea where that is at. There is no bearing on the swivel pin or above or below it. The only bearing is the gimbal where the drive shaft goes thru.

I did not change any bearing in my project at all. I replaced the upper and lower bushing that the swivel pin sits in as well as a new seal, but no bearing. I pulled the bottom pin out and replaced the bushing down there and there is no bearing there either. The fun part with the bottom pin is aligning the holes back up to get the cotter pin back thru.

I have a question that I don't want taken the wrong way. Not trying to bash, but don't know how else to word it. Trust me, I'm being serious when I ask this.

What do you cut that big hole out with? Is there any way to cut it without making it look like Godzilla used the drive as a chew toy for a week? I'm sure this method is much easier than the alternative but there's got to be a way to make that look better. I would seriously hope the company putting this product out intended for this to look more professional than that.

Buck

Buck, perhaps a dremel with a cutting blade or air tool with cutting blade(disk)??

From 48 to 55 secs into slideshow video.

I'll have to pick up a few special tools to complete this job, but can't figure out what the donut looking thing is used for.

Perhaps. I would certainly think there's an option that would make it look better than what's in the pics on this thread.

Buck

I think ldillow is referring to the bushings which some may refer to as a plain bearings as opposed to a roller/needle bearings.

LMAO here Buck...no offense taken. The first cutout that I did on an old housing came out perfect. I think the reason it did was because there wasnt anything behind it. When you are cutting out your real housing, there is the tiller arm behind it and this is what will break the drill bit when drilling. The pattern was down pretty good but I used a chisel to break out the window and as luck would have it, ir sorts broke off more than I wanted. The best thing to use is a small dremel. The kit comes with 3 drill bits and 3 dremel disc. With a dremel you dont have to break out anything...just cut in a straight line from hole to hole. My problem is that I dont have a dremel and I didnt want to go buy one. I messed up the window some on one drive, but got the other one pretty close to the pattern. I am almost positive that Ron...the guys that sells the repair kits used a dremel in the video that he made. Even with the window like the chew toy thing, as long as you have good coverage on the stainless steel plate to go over it...it really doesnt matter. Before you start cutting, you have to drill something like 64, 3/32 holes to get the outline for the window. Tape your pattern onto the drive and then take a small punch with a sharp point and center punch all the spots where you will drill. Be careful as the drill goes thru as it will hit the tiller arm on the inside, bend and break the drill. I learned this the hard way as I broke a buttload of drills. On the port drive, when I heard and felt the drill almost ready to go thru, I backed up on the pressure so that I would not punch thru. I let the drill barely go thru and only broke 2 drills on that side and made a better pattern. As long as you leave enough meat on the drive for the plate to cover up...it really doesnt matter if you have the chew toy effect or not...it is going to be covered up and you are going to have the points between every hole regardless if you use a punch to break out the window or a dremel...it is still going to be a nasty looking hole.

Ooooooooooooo...just before the white donut thingy is the Mercruiser tool to install the upper bushing, lower bushing and seal all at the same time. Right after that is the white donut thingy that is used to drive the ring onto the drive shaft bellows so that it goes on and in straight so that you dont have to use a 2 x 4 or something like that. You can get these on E-Bay for around $30. I want to say that it is called a "bellows ring install tool" Here you go... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Drive-Shaft-...c64f46&vxp=mtr
or if you want to get what I have...get this... http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALIGNMENT-GI...cd1969&vxp=mtr and you can use the bar to check your alignment.

I never thought about that...thanks ZZ and more than likely, you are right...I was thinking of a REAL bearing. Duuuuuuuuuuh on me.

Makes sense abt the u-joint bellows retainer ring install tool. I've only replaced Alpha bellows and the early models didn't use a retainer ring.

Starting to make a list of special tools I'll be needing:
I have the alignment tool.
I have the hinge pin removal tool and a torch, so I should be OK there.
Think I saw somewhere on OSO abt where you can use a large PVC coupler to install the bellows retainer ring.

I do wanna get the bushing install tool, but haven't found a source yet.

The bellows installation tool might be nice, but I think I can get by without it (did my alphas without one).
Not planning on replacing the gimble bearing at this time, so don't need that driver.

Any other tooling I'll need?