Bravo Bellows
 

Time for me to change out my transom bellows and shift cables. Any difference between the Merc. and Sierra products aside from pricing?

In short.....YES. I don't mind using Sierra parts on several items, but bellows is not one of them. The Sierra ones seem cheaper and I don't want to take a chance as a business on something that could potentially sink someones boat.
This is one part that I would spend the money on and buy Merc. I normally would not recommend buying from Merc., but this is one case.
Eddie

Is replacing the bellows a pretty straight forward job? No special tools needed? Just remove the drives?

Thanks Eddie!

One of my oldest friends has been a marine mechanic for 40+ years and has experince with both and would never use anything but the Mercruiser bellows. His experience says the typical life expectancy is atleast 2-1

Buy the real stuff you cheapskate !!!:eek::eek::ernaehrung004:

I have never needed any special tools, and I've replaced a couple on my boat.

I think it is pretty straightforward. Some people remove the Bellhousing to put on the U-joint bellow. Some do not. If you are replacing the Shift Cable Bellow you will HAVE to remove the bellhousing.

How long do the bellows usually last ? I have a 2000 with the Bravo 1 and wondering what to expect. The boat show 282 hours and don't appear to have ever been stored in the water.

Time to change if only for piece of mind.

huh?

How else are you going to get to the rear retaining nut that holds the cable in?

I guess you could lift it way up and pull the shift cable through the transom, but I think you would risk bending it.

Either way, would only take about 2 minutes to remove the hinge pins assuming they aren't corroded.

He means gimbal ring I believe.

Yeah - you're probably right.

RING - NO
BH - YES

You can sneak the cable out without pulling the bell housing.(Yes, Seaford is correct....it's called a bell housing) You just lift it up a little and use a line wrench on the nut.
Eddie

Its slotted at the bottom,,,, you can get a wrench in there

Man - that sounds unpleasant relative to just taking the hinge pins out, but where there's a will I guess there's a way...