Gimbal/ outdrive questions

[vipzach]

I recently took my boat into the shop to get checked. The outdrive had a vibration in it. The mechanic told me that my gimbal bearing was going out. He also told me it needed the impellar replaced and that my tilt/trim motor needed cleaned up(the outdrive can almost be pushed to the ground easily)<br />What causes the gimbal bearing to go out? Can I prevent this in the future? Is there a way to clean the trim motor/pump? Maybe flushing fluid through it or should I pay him to take it apart and clean it up?

 

[wvit100]

Re: Gimbal/ outdrive questions

Lack of grease hurts the gimbal or water getting to it. You should pull the outdrive off at least once a year to see if you have water getting to the u-joints or gimbal. The new gasket is less than $10 and it doesn't take 30 minutes total.<br /><br />If you can push you outdrive down by hand then the valves in the tilt/trim unit are most probably bad. I don't think flushing them out would help. The impellar needs replaced every other year, although last weekend we changed a friends that was five years old and it wasn't too bad, but then the boat only had 175 hours on it.

 

[Don S]

Re: Gimbal/ outdrive questions

What ya got? Mercruiser? Volvo? OMC? V8, V6, 4cyl? What year, what kind of drive??????<br /><br />Vibration could be Ujoints, bent prop blades, bent prop shaft, gimbal bearing (dry or rusty). If water was in the bellows, replace the bellows.<br />The trim may or may not be the pump, if it's a Merc, the trim rams have relief valves that may be leaking. Your dealer should be able to use the gauge manifold to determine if it's the rams or pump.

 

[vipzach]

Re: Gimbal/ outdrive questions

Sorry for the lack of info. It is a 91 VIP, with a merc 3.0 Alpha one gen one outdrive

 

[Bondo]

Re: Gimbal/ outdrive questions

What causes the gimbal bearing to go out? Can I prevent this in the future?

Lack of Proper Preventive Maintenance..............<br /><br />Either, Doing Or, Having the Annual Maintenance Done.........

 

[Don S]

Re: Gimbal/ outdrive questions

Also make sure the engine is running on all 4 and well tuned. A missing engine will make it feel like a vibration in the outdrive when in fact it's nothing more than the engine missing.