water in bellows ?

JonRiley56 · Jul 6, 2008

Hi,

I have a mrecruiser 470 with an Alpha 1 drive. I pulled the outdrive and it looked like i had water in the boot where the outdrive shaft fits through to slide into the hub. I had a fair amount of grease in there when I put the drive on last and now it is sort of a frothy brown color. I get a small trickle of water off the drive unit into the boat when it is in the water.

I wil put new gaskets on when I replace the drive. Should I be concerned if I am getting a little water in the boot ?

thanks

jon

sea wolf · Jul 6, 2008

Re: water in bellows ?

Yes, you should. You need a new u-joint bellows. Water will ruin the gimbal bearing & possibly wash the grease out of the u-joints. The froth you found is water mixing in with the grease. The water entering the boat is from the bellows leaking. You most likely will also need a new gimbal bearing & u-joints. Sorry.

bhammer · Jul 6, 2008

Re: water in bellows ?

Too add to this, yes, you need a new boot. You might as well change the gimbal bearing and the two u-joints, and the shift boot as well. If the small leak turns out any bigger, it can sink your boat. At the marina, this Fourth, they were all looking at a boat that was sunk to the top. The rumor is, that the guy new he had leaky bellows but thought he could wait until after the holiday to change. Ran down the battery with the bilge pump and then filled with water....

JonRiley56 · Jul 7, 2008

Re: water in bellows ?

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. I will go ahead and make the additional changes. I have never done the bellows , gimble bearing etc.

Can you give me some pointers on how to go at it ?

jon