A looked at my bellows today and they seem in good condition. Still flexible with no cracks.
My shift bellows does have some signs of dry rot in the folds. And the metal clip is pretty rusted. Still ok or change shift bellows?
True. Seems like all my toy’s maintenance schedules are by hours but it’s just easier to do things annually and most of it is inspect and replace when needed. I created checklists for everything I need to inspect. I’ll have to re-do my boat checklist to include inspections of other items now...
Yea I’m going to do what I do with all my other toys. Inspect every fall / spring and R&R items at fist sign of wear / failure. Obviously fluids get changed on regular bases (every fall for boat). Not hard to pull drive to inspect internals like bellows and such.
So I was looking up a part on Mercury’s parts website and went to the Maintenance Kits section for the alpha 1 gen II drives.
They have a 100 hour maintenance kit and 300 hour maintenance kit. The 300 hour maintenance kit includes the bellows, gimbal bearing, shift cable, anodes, and water...
Ok I should clarify… I use merc stuff for all my repairs except for engine oil and the spark plugs / plug wires (when I changed them). Everything else is merc.
Whatever I’m working on whether it be marine or my ATV’s, snowmobiles, motorcycles, cars… I always order the genuine parts for that...
I’ll just take the outdrive off and inspect the gimble bearing, bellows and alignment for now and maybe hold off on water pump. I have to look at my records and see when I changed it last. Probably about 5 years ago.
Oh and I always use oem parts when it comes to everything i own.
Thanks...
Yea I’m pretty comfortable taking the outdrive off and on. It’s pretty easy. Done in plenty of times on my boat and some others when I worked for a marina as a “starting mechanic” (was a parts guy forever then started wrenching before I moved on to what I do now). That was 15 years ago, thus me...
Ok thanks everyone! What should I look for when inspecting the shift cable?
To check the gimble bearing, just stick my finger up in there and check for smooth turning and any play?
Engine does runs little rough when in drive and advanced a little. Almost like it stumbles a little. Otherwise...
It’s stored indoors. When we’re at the cabin, it stays in the water for a week at a time.
Bellows are original and look perfect. I’ll still probably change them though as the are 20 years old.
What about ignition system? How often for a tune up (cap, rotor, plugs and cables)?
What about...
Is there a link or can someone tell me some basic maintenance intervals for the alpha 1 gen II outdrive? A basic chart when to inspect or replace things per year (I.e. bellows, I-joints, shift cable, etc)
I think I’m way overdue on my Bellows. I’m ordering them now but also want to complete...
Hello all!
I’m wiring my bilge with a float for backup. I want a on-off dash switch where I can turn on to manually activate bilge and when the switch is off, the bilge is controlled by the float. I’m planning on using a 5 pin relay for this where terminal 87 will go to bilge pump and 87a will...
I’m using my buddies boat this summer and it has surge brakes. The boat was previously stored at another buddies house and he never did any maintenance and the maintenance he did do was pretty shady tree.
The master cylinder was replaced a couple years ago and I replaced a broken brake line...
