I have my entire gimble housing off the boat and im freshening up everythng, I was just getting ready to install the gimble bearing into the housing on my bench out of boat when in the manual it said do not install gimble bearing unless its mounted on transom so bearing can bealigned to motor????? I thought that was weird, as the bearing should only be seated in one located and not be alinged to motor, but the motor needs to be aligned to the bearing via the motor mounts. I am going to align the motor as im doing a repower.

So can i install the bearing on my bench, or should i wait til motor and everything is mounted up and do that last.

Also the gimble bearing housing has cut aways on one side...does that go towards bow?

Yes you can install the bearing on the work bench. The bearing will piviot in the race so you will have to bump it around till it is lined up with the coupler. If the bearing is not lined up with the coupler the alinement tool will not slide freeley.

so then should i install bearing so the notches in bearing carrier housing are facing out toward rear, becuase that is how the bearing comes out of carrier housing. if i install so knotches are facing in towards bow then when i tap the bearing to align it it may come out of the carrier..........right?

I installed mine on the bench, and I put them in with the notches facing the back so that you can just pop the bearing out with a screwdriver in the future.

Merc wants you to do it the opposite way - with the notches facing foward so that you can not just replace the bearing, but rather you are forced to replace the race as well using a slide hammer and an unneccessary amount of time/labor.

EITHER way you choose to do it, the bearing will not pop out. It must be rotated 90 degrees in the housing and aligned with the notches to get it out. I recommend going on ebay and buying one of the alignment tools for 35 bucks - makes your life easier once you get the assemblies mounted back on you can simply align the bearing and throw the drive back on.

cool, thats what i thought, cuz i read in the manual that the notches go forward, then found some instuctions on line that says do it oppisite......

I have seen those tools on ebay.....are any of them better than others....look like there are 2-3 different people that make them. I only need the alignment shaft right, i can use the old bearing housing minus the tension ring as a tool to press the new bearing in to the gimbal is what i was thinking.

If you put the bearing in the frezer it goes in a little ezeyer.

There is a member on here who sells them on Ebay. I can't remember his exact handle but it has "whoya" in it. That is who I bought mine from - Good Guy.

What I would recommend is pull the old bearing/race out, and then put the new race in to the transom assembly - you then just slide the bearing itself in through the notches "perpindicular" to the housing and turn it 90* and it is mounted. (NOT sure if that is clear or not). Then throw the assembly back on the boat and use the alignment tool to align the bearing with the splines in the engine coupler.

There is a metal "seal" that sits forward of the race in the Transom Assembly - It isn't really a maintenance or wear item, but a lot of people destroy them getting the old bearing housing out so be prepared to buy one - they are less than $20 if I remember correctly.

Hope I am making sense here. I wish I could post pictures but I can't on this website any more. I have TONS of pictures from when I did it showing exactly what I am talking about.