Shift cable bellows A1G1

[Mralph]

Working on my first boat ‘90 Wellcraft Eclipse 216 I bought a year ago. Just did gimbal bearing, u-joints and bellows. The trouble I’m having is getting the shift cable bellows to stay on the flange on the transom side. I’m about to redo it for the third time, the first time I had trouble keeping the boot on the flange and the clamp was going on crooked. Second time I cleaned everything up again and redid paying close attention to the amount of bellows adhesive I used and not tightening up the hose clamp until I let the adhesive setup for 2 hours. Also paying close attention to not over tightening the hose clamp. Everything looked good when done, took out and the bellows was almost off the flange again and letting water in. I do think the nylon zip tie on the small end might of been too tight and caused it to pull the boot off. My question is “Is there any tips or tricks to getting this boot to stay put? Is there a dimension on the how far the bellows should be out when clamp on small end?” Or anything else that might help. Sorry for the long winded explanation. Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[eric102]

When I did mine for the first time last year I just followed the adhesive directions for cleaning, cure time and made sure the hose clamp was on correctly then snugged it down and let it sit for a day. The next day I snaked a new shift cable cable through it (not easy!) and set the bellows length by experimenting with how much stretch tension it had at the extreme up position and how much compression in the extreme down position and kind of picked a happy medium for length. Then I snugged on the supplied metal clamp (not to tight) as per the directions. No idea if that's the correct way to determine the length but so far no leaks and the bellows doesn't look like its overly stretched in the up position. Good luck! Note: this was with OEM Mercruiser parts.

 

[72 Chesapeake]

I did bellows on my 72 Mercruiser 165 and had similar problems with the bellows pulling off. First time i didn't let the glue tack up enough on both shift cable and driveshaft bellow I had this problem. Second attempt I got it and the manual states that there should be 2 inches of cable between the end of the bellows and the bell housing. I would assume yours should be close to that and in the up position there isn't too much stretch. May I also say from experience, always change the bellows hose clamps when doing the job as i had one strip and was a bear to change with the drive together.