MC1 Gimbal Bearing

[jstucky]

I will do that BT. It will take me a day or two because I've got to get a slide hammer (that looks to be the best way of getting the retainer out. (Did I understand correctly that the metal bearing retainer is actually called the tolerance ring?) I have no idea how the bearing got on the outside unless it was flat out miss-installed by someone previous. Thanks again.

 

[Bt Doctur]

With the bearing outside of the ring you cannot install a drive. You mentioned water and rust so it could have"ground" its housing away .They come like this in one unit

 

[Bt Doctur]

 

[Alumarine]

you have a greaseable housing and bearing . Why you have a snap ring is a mystery.

My 74 had the greaseable housing and bearing with snap ring from new.
But the slots in the tolerance ring were facing forward.
When I changed it I left the snap ring off.

Maybe back then they thought a belt and suspenders was needed?

 

[Bt Doctur]

Ah, the wonderful mysteries of the Boating World

 

[Bt Doctur]

What with the "no edit" now Still left with the question on how the bearing came out of the tolerance ring?

 

[nola mike]

Anyone else having issues seeing Bt Doctur pics? I can see the op, but none from Bt...

 

[jstucky]

Thanks guys-So the bearing and the retaining ring come as an assembly? The way the ring is sloped it would make much more sense for the slots to be facing forward. I'll see what I find when I get the ring out....

 

[Bt Doctur]

Nola, I can see and open the OP pics today but I posted a gimbal bearing in post 23 and your saying it`s not there?

 

[Bt Doctur]

Mercruiser wants then Fwd so you just cant swap the bearing out. WWWWAAAAYYYY back in the early days of the BP Special gimbal bearing before the copyright expired it was only avaiable from a dealer as just the bearing. It can be found in either book 1 or book 2 of the early manuals. The reason it was stopped was because people could not understand how grease got into the bearing and they were installing the gimbal gearing backwards so that the grease hole in the bearing did not line up with the small slot cut into the tolerance housing. The slot is where the grease traveled when you injected it.. Thats why the standard was changed to slots forward and not aft.

 

[nola mike]

Nola, I can see and open the OP pics today but I posted a gimbal bearing in post 23 and your saying it`s not there?

Yeah, not seeing any of your pics. Also on the SIS thread you just commented on.

 

[Alumarine]

I can see a bearing in post #23 using Firefox, IE, Chrome and Edge.

 

[kenny nunez]

Snap ring help. Take a long punch and hit it all the way around to break the corrosion loose before you try to remove it otherwise you will not be able to squeeze it closed. With some luck the bearing and retainer will come out with the slide hammer.
The tool that Chris has makes the installation go easy. If you remove the old bearing from the retainer you could make a tool to drive in the new bearing with the steel retainer. The new bearing retainer is aluminum and easy to damage where it will not go all the way in.

 

[jstucky]

Thanks for the advice Kenny. Since the bearing already fell out of the retainer that shouldn't be too hard to make then. After looking at some more pictures of the new bearings I know understand what I am looking at. The pictures in the service manual weren't real clear. I'm still not sure how the bearing got on the back back side of the ring but there is definitely not anything left of the front side of the bearing housing.

 

[nola mike]

I can see a bearing in post #23 using Firefox, IE, Chrome and Edge.

Ok, looks like a problem with work computer. I can see pics on my phone. Sorry bout that

 

[Bt Doctur]

we need a pic of the snap ring and whatever is remaining in the bore when you remove the remains. Totally impossible for a gimbal bearing to simply "come out" of the carrier(tolerance ring)

 

[jstucky]

Hooray. It took several attempts with 2 different slide hammer pullers but I finally got the bearing out. Here are some pictures. I was able to reinstall the bearing sideways through the slots and then turn it so I could use it to pull the retaining ring so that explains out it came out when I pulled on it. I'm still not sure from what you guys are saying if this is normal or not. The housing appears to be in ok shape. I'm waiting on the bellows and gimbel bearing kit I ordered and then we'll see what we can do. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Clean the inside of the housing with some fine sandpaper, mark the hole in the new bearing mark the opening in the housing , line up marks and install.throw snap ring away But there was no way you can install a drive with the bearing outside of the tolerance ring, NO WAY and no way to remove the bearing from the tolerance ring unless the ring is totally destroyed. So I am baffled when you said you removed the drive and found the bearing out of its ring

 

[achris]

... But there was no way you can install a drive with the bearing outside of the tolerance ring, NO WAY and no way to remove the bearing from the tolerance ring unless the ring is totally destroyed. ..

In the early day (pre about 1986) Merc were installing the bearing and carrier so the slots faced aft (you could see the slots when you removed the drive)... People started replacing just the bearing, by twisting it 90 degrees and pulling it out through the slots. As the bearing and carrier are a matched set (we are told :noidea, it caused all sorts of problems. (I know because I replaced quite a few 'bad' bearings that people swore black and blue that they replaced both bearing and carrier. I know it was BS because you could still see the corrosion between the carrier and housing. When they continued to insist, I charged them double.) Anyway, in the early 90 (I think) Merc release a service bulletin with instruction to install the bearing and carrier with the slots facing forward, so people couldn't pull just the bearing. Are they a matched set? Who knows? But only being able to replace them as a set solved a lot of problems.

My recommendation is get one of the 'sealed' bearings (from Merc. not sierra), remove the grease nipple and use the supplied plug to seal up the hole. Then never have to worry about greasing it ever again. I've seen those sealed bearings in for about 10 years now, and still going strong. Same with the sealed unis. The only thing that will kill those sealed unis and gimbal bearings is water in the bellows, and that'll kill the greaseable ones too. So what is the point of a greaseable bearing or greaseable unis? Only another thing to remember during service.

Chris......
(The 'tolerance ring' is that thin piece of crinkled sheet around the outside of the carrier, with the slot for the grease )

 

[jstucky]

Chris and BT, thanks again for your thoughts. I think I'm now on my way to getting this thing back together.