Alpha 1 gen 1 Watery grease in gimbal bellows

Tanker_01

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I took my outdrive off to replace the gimbal bearing and my gimbal housing bellows was full of watery grease! There are not any tears in either bellows so where else could the water be coming in from? What is the best thing to use to clean off of it out of there, is it safe to spray brake cleaner into there and scoop it out? or maybe a water hose?
 

alldodge

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With no cracks in the bellows, then its not sealed at the ends. Remove the bellows, clean and reinstall if it all checks out, but might be a good time to just replace
 

Tanker_01

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With no cracks in the bellows, then its not sealed at the ends. Remove the bellows, clean and reinstall if it all checks out, but might be a good time to just replace

Where can water be getting in there though? And where is the grease even coming from? Is there any way the lower unit oil could have gotten up there? I would think the water is coming in through the gasket or big O ring. Should I just clean and reinstall with new o ring and gasket and take it out again and check it afterwards?
 

alldodge

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If its grease then its comes from greasing the gimbal bearing

If its oil/lube then the drive shaft seal is leaking

If the water is getting in where the paper gasket is then it would show signs

If bellows is not torn or cracked, then its leaking at one of the ends. The square ring helps but the bellows ends is what keeps the water out
 

harringtondav

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The grease is likely out drive lube coming past the gear yoke seal where the drive shaft assembly enters the front of the O/D. You can run a long time with a little leakage, as long as you regularly check the drive's lube level and keep it topped off.

Another place water could enter is past the drive/bell housing gasket, and then past the large O ring seal in the bell housing.
 

Rick Stephens

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First thing is make sure you know what that slurry is - take a swipe of it on your finger and smell it. Drive lube smells - A LOT. Grease will have almost no smell. You'll know, immediately.

If it is drive lube and water, you have three problems, a leak behind the yoke and water into the bellows along with possible damage to the u-joints.

If it is grease, then you also have two problems - a water leak, can be in the shift link area, or the ends of the bellows. And possible u-joint damage.


I had a drive that always leaked into the shifter area, and eventually into the u-joint area. I did learn to glue the big o-ring into the bell housing, that helped some, but that o-ring as far as I am concerned doesn't actually do a good job of keeping water out of the u-joint bellows. If there is water in the shifter lever area then there is also water in the lower shift cable housing. Which is a long term no no. It will cause the cable to start binding unless you clean it out and get it dry. Don't lubricate the shift cable. Just clean and dry.

A corroded or misplaced water passage o-ring can put water under pressure into the bellows.

And the drive to bell housing gasket is a gimmee. If it pooched out or the bell housing or drive gasket surface has corrosion it can leak. And as I said, it will get past the big o-ring. If no sign of water in the shifter area, then you have a bad bellows connection to gimbal housing or bell housing.

Rick
 

Tanker_01

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I pulled the lower unit drain and low and behold the oil in there was also watery. Looks like thats where its all coming from. I called a local marina and am going to have them refresh the whole outboard for me including u-joints, doesnt seem like it will be too expensive as it is all routine maintenance items. I am still going to do the gimbal bearing myself as it seems rather trivial. If I have to do bellows too down the road I at least have those now ready to go.
 

Tanker_01

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Gimbal bearing is out. Now to clean all the excess grease and stuff out of there. Do I need to replace the seal behind the bearing if it doesnt have any tears or anything in it?
 

Bondo

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Gimbal bearing is out. Now to clean all the excess grease and stuff out of there. Do I need to replace the seal behind the bearing if it doesnt have any tears or anything in it?

Welcome Aboard,...... Naw, not really,.... it sorta directs the purged grease from the gimbal bearin' into the bellows, rather than into the boat,.....
But,......
I find the grease naturally goes that way, anyways, 'n little to none goes into the boat,.....
 

Tanker_01

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Welcome Aboard,...... Naw, not really,.... it sorta directs the purged grease from the gimbal bearin' into the bellows, rather than into the boat,.....
But,......
I find the grease naturally goes that way, anyways, 'n little to none goes into the boat,.....

Awesome I guess I will just hold onto the seal for now then as long as the original one looks ok still. Really glad all of this is going pretty smoothly. Replacing that bearing seems like its going to be difficult but with the tool I got it made it very easy.
 
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