Bravo 3 gimbal bearing and bellows replacement

[USMC_EOD]

I am looking at doing the gimbal bearing and bellows replacement myself. Does anyone have a good video of replacing the gimbal bearing and bellows on a bravo 3. I don't have the alignment tool so I'm going to do everything myself but seating the new bearing unless I can find the tools to do it. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[alldodge]

In the Adults Only section at the top of this section (or link in my sig) is an area under Mercruiser showing home made tools. The tools section has several ones which will remove the gimbal bearing. A puller is better then a slide hammer but either will work, but as before a puller is better. The bearing comes straight out.

There are two types of gimbal bearings, one greaseable, the other is sealed. If you get the one which is not sealed you need to align the hole leading to the hole leading to the grease fitting on the transom assembly and slot forward. If you get the sealed bearing just put it in slots forward.

Need to use a tool also found in the area to hammer it in, which can be made from a rod, large washer and some wood

 

[bruceb58]

Freeze the bearing before you install it. Makes it much easier to drive in.

 

[thumpar]

When I did mine I pulled it with a 3 jaw puller from the Autozone loan a tool program. I then had a local shop install a new one. It was only $65 with part and install. I have the alignment tool but not the attachment to install the bearing.

 

[bruceb58]

Go to post #23 for the best way I have seen to remove the bearing
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/engin...light=threaded

I haven't used this method yet but I will when the time comes. I really dislike those 3 jaw pullers.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OUXAIA/...SIN=B000OUXAIA

 

[tpenfield]

YouTube has many videos from a wide range of sources, plus as mentioned, there are lots and lots of information here on iBoats. So, you can view a few videos to get a good perspective.

I did a gimbal bearing, u-joints, and bellows replacement on my Bravo3 drives this past year. (I have a couple of threads here in the Mercruiser section that you can view)

Gimbal bearings are easy, bellows are a PITA and something I avoided for a long time. But . . . after having done them on my 2 outdrives, it is not so bad.

 

[USMC_EOD]

Got the job done. It wasn't very difficult however getting the exhaust bellows on was a huge pain. I did figure out a good way to do the shift cable. After pulling the cable out I reinserted it from the engine compartment side so I could use it to help guide the shift cable sleave back up over the back of the engine. One thing I got from the local dealer that nobody told me about was the tool for removing the 2 pivot pins located under the trim sending and trim limiting units. Overall the job took me about 4 or 5 hours. I think I could do it much faster now that I've done it once. Thanks to everyone for the help. Now I just have to figure out why my remanufactured engine from Mercruiser is going into guardian mode. I'll start another topic on that one.

 

[alldodge]

It's a bit late now but you could have installed the exhaust tube instead of boot. Never did know which engine you had so it may not be that much of a help anyway