Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

I really don't want to pull my motor. I read somewhere that there is a new tool available to do this without pulling the motor. ????

And, how do you go about doing this?? Remove the lower unit, remove the two pivot bolts behind the "hockey puck" trim senders, remove the bellows and the shift cable (how do you remove the shift cable??, and then I'm lost from here.

And I need a cheap ring. Anyone got one laying around that they replaced due to slop in the pivot?? I'd love to try to recondition one. I'm broke!!!!!

Mike,
What happened? Did you go back to the beach and check it?? Where is the slop in the upper pivot pin (steering tiller ataches here) or in one or both of the bellhousing pins (under the trim limit and sending units?

If your going to recondition one of them, then it might as well be yours.. depends on how bad it is.
I did one a year ago, cant remember all the details. Drive comes off, sending units come off, water hose is removed from the bell housing( it swings up and down and drive it bolted to it). Bellows is removed from transom assy I believe, hose clamp holds it in place. Mark or make a drawing of where the screw is positioned on the bellows.. so you can reassmeble. shift cable has a nut and oring in bellhousing, take the nut off and pull the cable out of the bellhousing. There is a bellows on it also, cant remember how it goes.. but another hose clamp I believe. I have the tool to remove the thingy in the water hose if you need it. ...

That is a start.. I can tell you how I fixed the one I had. Cant repeat it here in public.. younger kids at home may try it.. you know..

let me know..

Dick

PS.. two days in a row.. on the trailer running.. felt soooooo good!!

Thanks for the back up this morn..

Step 1:

Remove drive
unbolt six nuts and trim cylinders speedo hose ect... I assume you know about the shift cable and stuff.

Step 2:

Remove Bellhousing:
Remove water hose retainer nut, it is a wedge shaped nut that usually requires a special cross studded driver. It is actually inside the hose and when screwd in it expands the hose to the bell housing wall.

Remove shift cable, I think it is a 7/16 nut. Be carefull not to loose the seal on th inside of the bellhousing. This is on the back side not under the nut.

Pull out driveshaft bellows retainer, Use a pair of channel locks or needle nose pliers. It is usually recked in removal, get a new one.

Unclamp exhaust bellows band clamp

Remove drive lube tube, Depending on the year it may just have a clamp behind the bell housing or a quick disconnect with a retainer located inside the boat just below the raw water hose. ( I think it is from like 1999 and up)

Remove trim senders and note positions

Remove the hinge pins. This requires a special tool too it is like a big torx driver. They are torqued to 145 Ftlbs and use red locktite. I ended up using a 3' pipe breaker bar. You could remove these pins first to allow you to get at the drive lube hose and bellows a little eaiser.

The high performance gimble ring use a hinge pin with a flange that is mounted with two smaller torx screws. With this setup you don’t need the big breaker bar. You need a simple slide hammer to pull the pins.

Step 3 Gimble Ring Removal

To remove the gimble ring basically you need to remove the upper and lower pivot pins. The problem is the upper pin retaining nut is hidden within the rear transom assy. This is the “box” right above the gimble ring. The way to remove the pin with out having to remove the engine and transom plate is to drill two 1 1/8” holes on both sides of the “Box” with a template (paper) from merc. Loosen the steering lever clamping bolt and nut through the holes. Then you could use the special tool you seen. Just slip it onto the top of the lock nut and push the gimble ring to one side, remove the wrench and move ring to the side and put the wrench on again. Then push the ring to the side again and repeat until the nut is loose. You will tap the 1 1/8" holes and plug them when done.

There is a cotter pin on the lower pin and then you can remove it. The upper pin after the nut is loose may be pulled by a slide hammer. Note there are washers and things that need to be replaced in the same place.

You should get a Merc Manual # 28 It shows all the procedures. Have fun, :rolleyes: If you need the special tools I could loan you some. Just let me know.

Ray; you are most kind and correct to send that much info. You go on my +++ list !! --- Jer

Raypanic, my ring is shot. Broken in 3 places, on both sides of the top pivot pin, and directly astern (between the bell housing and the pin if you know what I mean). Do you think I can get it off without drilling the holes? But even if I do, i'll probably have to drill to get the new one on eh??

I thought there was a tool on the market that eliminated the need to drill the holes??? Would it be easier just to lift the motor off the rear engine mounts?? Can you get at this nut from the inside???

Even so, I need a gimbal ring real cheap. That's gonna be my biggest hurdle. As it is, I'm going to HAVE to do this myself, can't afford to pay somebody. And how do you go about drilling a 1 1/8" hole in aluminum without going all over hell and tarnation doing it??? Seems to me the transom would be in the way??? Do you step up to it? Start with say a 1/2" bit and work your way up??

No you have to drill the holes. The transom is sandwitched between the inner and outer transom assy. The nut is "hidden" in the outer. You would have to take all thru-bolts off to get the back off. All installations I have seen are this way. The merc manual does state that if you can see the nut from the inside you dont have to drill the holes (Duh) but I have never seen any boats prepped this way. The nut is what holds on the steering arm down

The holes are drilled on the sides of the housing, should be easy to get at from the rear of the boat. It is on the sides of the squared off housing just above the U-Bolt Usually with a mercrusier sticker on it. You can use a 1 1/8" hole saw to drill the holes. I have a template and I will see If I can measure it for you for the locations. The tool is still inserted in the holes it looks like 2/3 of a box end wrench. Normally without the wrench you have to use a hammer and punch on the flats of the nut, one at a time to loosten or tighten it. (What a pain in the ass).

I can scan a few pages tomorrow at work and post them for you it will make things a lot clearer.

I have a picture I put a re dot on the spot, you would drill one on each side then after you are done tap with a pipe tap and install a plug.

Thanks Raypanic. Guess I'll have to do some drilling. A hole say will cut thru that much aluminum?? Probably need one of those $40 diamond tipped ones eh?? LOL!!

Guess I could do all the prework (drilling, removing parts, etc...) and at least be ready to re-install it when I can come up with some money to buy a gimbal ring.

A hole saw would work, but just don't let the pilot hit the nut.

A regular hole saw should do the trick-- the aluminum isn't very thick there.

Mike, I got a hole saw you can use if needed.

Foul you can do it with one hole and not two. You slide a wrench from the inside of the transome on one side of the bolt then you drill the hole for the socket on the other side. I have also gotten to these bolts to do it with out the the holes from the inside on a TRS set up. It takes time but if you have a fine toothed wratchet it works. Not sure if the Bravo set up is the same or not??? Another trick I use to get the pin out of the top on the TRS drives is to take out the grease fitting on top of the drive and you can use a long narrow punch to drive it down. Good luck with the search.

Jon

Mike,
I did this on my old boat.. pull the drive and lift the engine a couple of inches..then slide it forward enough to reach the nuts to undo the transom assy.. we had silent choice and were able to do it..
Or drill the holes..


Good luck man.. sorry I am not in town I could show you what needs to be done..

Dick

Mike I have a used Bravo transom assy. for sale, cheap. If you are interested give me a call 396-8386. Ask for Luther.

Waterfoul, here is a link to a pdf file for the instructions out of the manual:

http://www.raymondbaldwin.com/bell-gimble.pdf

It is 2.41Mb in size. It has the removal instructions for the bellhousing and gimble ring. Note this manual is for 2000+ year but older ones are very similar.

I forgot the template for the drilling:

http://www.raymondbaldwin.com/template.pdf

Make sure you print it at 100%

Mike lets put your motor in my boat and go !!!just kidding get those wrenches back out!!!I'm getting sick of it though!

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

THis is a really old post but I just found it and if anyone is still monitoring this thread I am wondering if the method can be used on a alpha drive, The gimble bearing fell apart and pretty much destroyed every thing in its path, The guy doing the work says the engine has to come out of the boat to replace the gimbal ring.

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

Hey Jay...

before you lost your gimble, what were the symptoms?

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

I bought the boat like this The symptoms were, the boat shook and rattled so badly I thought the outdrive was about to come off, I drove it for 2 hours before I bought it and it didnt happen, but the next day it started as soon as I backed away from the ramp. I saw the outdrive come off and the gimble bearing came out in peices.The man I bought the boat from has offered to pay half for the repair but that still hurts my wallet, I hauled the boat 200 miles away because thats as close as I could get to a mechanic that could get to it and have it back to me by the 4th. The ring the drive bellows attatches to is cracked in 2 places, He said he may be able to fix it with a tig welder but if not the gimble ring needs to be replaced and the motor has to come out of the boat to do that. I cant afford that even with the other guy paying half because I am also having the drive rebuilt.
I am just wondering if there is another option for an alpha drive other than pulling the motor.

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

Damn, I saw this post, and thought Waterfoul was running again! :eek:

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

I've seen this many times. When the gimbal bearing (or a u-joint) failure occurs, it can destroy the clamping surface for the u-joint bellows and the outer transom plate must be replaced. In order to replace it, the motor must be pulled to remove the transom assembly.

Here's what seems to be a fairly simple solution. Check it out, I've never tried it but it just might save you a tion of $$$


http://www.ghrkits.com/GHRKIT/ghrkit.html
Good luck,

Kurt

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

Thanks Kurt that is great information, Mechanic is taking the boat to a welder today to see if it can be fixed , if not I will definitley give that kit a try, the labor cost alone for removing the motor is more than I can bear, From talking to him he doesnt want to pull the motor so he may be willing to try an alternative, He really likes to do things by the book, lifelong mercruiser mech. He is rebuilding my drive with all OEM parts

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

in our part of the world a remove/replace sbc is about 500 bucks.

What are you being quoted to pull and replace the motor?

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

8 hours labor for the whole thing.

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

has any one tried that wrench they make I just put two gimbals back on with teh hammer and punch meathod what a pain
wrench looks pretty trick

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

Well he got it all pulled apart today and the damage is as bad or worse than in looked when I saw it in person, Anyone think this can be repaired?http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?i...scn05779mp.jpg

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

ouch! why is it so worn to the one side? the engine out of alignment??

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

the bearing shattered and apparently the previous owner drove it like that for a while plus the time I had it in the water. If you can believe the guy he says he never heard a sound from it, and that may be true because I had it out for 2 hours the day I got it and never heard any noise, but the next day it acted as tho the outdrive wanted to jump off the boat and go for a swim.

Re: Need to replace my gimbal ring....how??
 

Yeah Gary, I bought one several years back. It works pretty well but some installations are still a pain.

Kurt