Alpha1 Gen1 reassembly sequence

[HPwannabe]

Another question about the "putting it back together" thing. I currently have everything off the boat. I have done some freshening up of the upper and lower gear housings, and reassembled the power unit. The transom assembly is off the boat. The bell housing is removed. Gimbal bearing is installed. I have almost all the parts needed to reassemble everything.
My question is how much more of the reassembly should I do before putting the transom assembly back on the boat, and in particular, how much of the bell-to- transom assembly should be done now.
And even more particular, these two things....
- It looks like it might be best to put the main bellows back on the gimbal housing now, and install it on the bell during or after installing that (I've done bellows with the bell housing on, but it's not exactly fun).
- at what point in the reassembly is it easiest to put the bell-to-gimbal water hose back on? Should I take advantage of the situation now to get it cut and fitted properly, and go ahead and attach it to the gimbal, and then attach to the bell as I'm installing it?

And - does/doesn't having the transom assembly on the boat make any of this easier, since it is held fixed in the transom, and it's one less thing that wants to move around while assembling parts?

Thanks for your insights,
Keith

 

[HPwannabe]

After some fitting up, I see that the water hose is easy to manage at this point. I think I see the path forward would be attach bellows and hose to gimbal, then attach hose to bell, assemble bell to gimbal, then finish bellows. Does that sound about right?

 

[todhunter]

I followed the order of operations in the manual. I did my entire transom assembly off the boat. The only thing I wish I had waited to do on the boat was torque the bolts for the bell housing to the gimbal ring.

 

[Rick Stephens]

I followed the order of operations in the manual. I did my entire transom assembly off the boat. The only thing I wish I had waited to do on the boat was torque the bolts for the bell housing to the gimbal ring.

And I did the opposite, installing the transom assembly bare of rubber and bell housing. It just doesn't matter all that much as long as the gimbal ring and steering arm are installed to spec. I will freely admit that if you don't want to miss somethin, the manual is the way to go.

RIck

 

[HPwannabe]

Thanks guys. I'm trying to follow the manual, but I'm having a little trouble with how it is sequenced. It seems to be "modular" rather than "serial" in the way it flows. But maybe I need to spend some more time with it. I've done all these tasks more than once over the years, so I'm familiar with the actual bits and pieces. But it's been a long time since I've had one disassembled to this degree, and I know sometimes the little jobs can be very frustrating (or impossible) if you get ahead of yourself in the order of operation. Thanks again.