you can make a tool from a Round bracket that is made for Galvinized pipe to screw into .... take the old bearing to home depot and match the bearing to the bracket ... I think the bracket is slightly larger and you need to grind it down some .. use the old race between the bracket and the new race .....screw a short piece of pipe with a cap on the other end to strike with a hammer ... .......m

Offthefront,
That's a good idea.
Thanks

Good analogy!

But you are changing the race! you are reusing the bearing/race houshing.

I always put the bearing housing in backwards for convenience on my commercial boat that i put 1500 hours a year on. Never had a problem with the bearing because of the installation always about water getting into it.

There is absolutly no difference in the way the bearing and race sit in the housing in either direction.

It came in very handy if you had a bearing all of a sudden rumbling fron the boat sitting with water in it to jerk the drive and change everything in 15 minutes.

I made your tool today for $9 ! Should work great.
Do you have any ideas for a cheap tool to drive the retaining ring on the drive end of the gimbal boot? There was no adhesive on that side of the boot, just a pressure fit I guess.

I think I will install the bearing like it was, with the red dot facing out, slots in. I read somewhere in the older threads that the newer gimbal bearings are machined on one side to allow a little more room for the XR,XZ,X drives. I have an X drive. The side of the bearing with the red dot is machined to allow a little more room. I don't want to run into any clearance issues.

I am beginning to think that the water must have come from the bilge when I forgot to put the plug in. Although I don't know how it gets in there? I have removed both bellows boots, and they look great. There was water in the shift cable bellows and U-joint bellows, although I don't see any evidence of a leak.

I should get the bearing back in, re-seal the bellows boots with bellows adhesive, and everything else back together soon.

That is if it ever quits snowing. Shoveling every other day is getting old. I'm sore already and another 6-12" tomorrow

I borrowed a tool from a local guy here to drive that retaining pin in - he had fabed it out of a chunck of hardened plastic/PVC. He had just used a router to rout down the outer edges so that it fit "Into" the bellow, and the outer edge was wide enough that you would smack it against the retaining pin. It had a steel pipe attached similiar I believe to what you built above.

Use adhesive on BOTH sides, make sure that the bellow is seated in the proper groove, and then smack the **** out of that retainer - you have to hit it harder than you think but it will NOT push the bellow our of the slots.

Water can run back down the driveshaft, through the gimbal bearing and into the bellow.

I think some people have put them in with 2x4's???

I would have a hard time believing that. The water would have to be up to the middle of your engine, and at most a few drops would seep through the gimble bearing. Over time if it did happen to get into the bellows it would have evaporated if that logic was true.
Just my 2 cents, I have been doing this a long time.

I have it back together, and I didn't find anything that appeared to be leaking? I don't know how the water got in there. I just hope its fixed.

Another question to add to this thread and stir the ideas alittle more. I have always had a wet bilge for years. I have changed out and replaced the bellows and shift cable bellows on both sides and still get a good amount of water into the bilge. I could have a perfectly dry bilge, put the plug in and back the boat down the launch ramp. By the time I unhook the boat and walk back with the hatch up i can actuall see an 1" to 2" of water already in the bilge. A merc. mechanic friend said it could be the upper seal that is around the vertical pin that the gimball ring is attached by the steering arm not sure what seal he is talking about. Any ideas and comments