Loose bell housings
 

I was told by the shop that my bell housings were loose and that they would need to be replaced without taking them apart? Sound right? 1991 Merc 465's Bravo 1's 250 hours no symptoms the boat was in for routine service.

Thanks for the help.

Were the drives removed to be serviced? How could both be bad? Mercury isn't really that good that the parts wear that evenly.

The Bellhousings could be bad because the threads where the pin attach are wobbled loose. It is easy to see. Just lift the cav plate while looking at movement in pins. The loads on the drive will eat the threads out. The HP pins where developed to remedy that problem. You are lucky someone pointed that out to you they ultimate failure may have been the drive hanging off by the indicator cables and tie bar. If you run it hard you should concider HP rings and Bellhousings.
Jim

If it is the threads they can be heli coiled without taking apart. Kind of tricky but it can be done.

I too have a loose pin on a Bravo 1 which you can see when you lift the cavitation plate. Brought new pins (pt no. 10-86801 HINGE SCREW) and bushing (pt no 23-847637 Bushing) but what do you mean by HP? Do I need something else??

Engine is a Merc HP425 (454 big block)

Refer to the "Flywheel Weight" thread. We have guys on this that can figure anything out. It will be hashed, re-hashed, over-analysed and you will fall asleep reading the rhetoric.

The bad part is: You won't learn a thing!

He means High performance gimbal rings. Nothing to do with the repair you are trying to make. Other than running hard with high hp engines may be causing the pins to get loose and therefore you may need stronger gimbal parts. Most likely though the pins just came loose and went unnoticed until the threads were destroyed.

BT :cool-smiley-011:

thanks so I guess I need to check the threads - I assume the bore or pin wear less from the reply.

So I drop the leg remove the gimbal and helicoil new threads and rebuild. Does loctite help or is it a no no.

:party-smiley-004:

Maybe after new bushes and a tighten I might be OK?

If you put in new bushing and the new pins can be tightened to the torque spec., you are good to go. The strongest loctite you can get is what you want to use on the threads of the pins.

Chances are the threads are shot and you need to helicoil. Remove the outdrive, remove the 2 pins and pull out the helmet as far as you can. The bellows will be resisting. Wedge it so it stays out so the threaded hole is clear. Put something like sheet metal behind the threaded hole to prevent the heli coil drill bit from going through the bellows. Then do the normal heli coil install procedure.

BT :cool-smiley-011:

Dave would that be the PINK loctite?

I 've tried loctite, helicoils, green loctite, The problem is the thread area is inadequate. New bellhousings seem to work best and assemble with green loctite. Make sure you don't have two tie bars working against each other. As that will eat the pin threads and swivel joints right up.
Jim

Hey Jim
I have 2 tie bars,one out from drive to drive and one inside from tiller to tiller.
can you explain how the 2 work against each other??
thanks,Tom

Tom,
It a geometric problem. I'll try to explain. If the drives were to stay perfectly even trim wise there would not be a problem. Maybe an example will help best. If you trim one drive and not the other the outer tie bar pulls the drives together changing the toe setting out. The inner bar does not see the change in angle and tries to hold them in line. Some thing has to give and the swivels and pivots end up giving way.
The proper way to have two tie bars is to have an inside bar end slotted to allow for the misalignment. I hope this helps.
Jim

Thanks Jim
Maybe thats why my inside tie bar is 2 piece and slotted