Bellows tool

[tom135]

Hi All;

I'm in the middle of replacing my u joint bellows on 1989 Chapprall 198 CLX with a 4.3L mercruiser and an Alpha 1 Gen 1 out drive. I have the manual for the outdrive, and watch some pretty good videos on the removal process.

My question is, do I really need to purchase the "Bellows Expander tool", or would I be able to install the bellows without it? Also I was wondering if anyone knows of any links to videos showing the assembly process?

Thanks
Tom

 

[achris]

Re: Bellows tool

Do you have the OEM manual? If not, download it HERE, and the procedure is well documented. (The password for the file is <<ribforum>>.)

And you only need the bellows expander tool for the exhaust bellows, not the uni-joint bellows.

 

[45Auto]

Re: Bellows tool

As Chris said, it's only used for the exhaust bellows. It is possible to do the exhaust bellows without it, I did a couple before I bought one.

That being said, when I bought my boat with twin outdrives, one of the BEST things I ever did for working on Mercruiser outdrives was buying the bellows expander tool. Turned it from a 2 hour job into a 5 minute job.

 

[Don S]

Re: Bellows tool

Do you have the OEM manual? If not, download it HERE, and the procedure is well documented. (The password for the file is <<ribforum>>.)

There is no password needed for that file Chris. ?????????????

 

[achris]

Re: Bellows tool

There is no password needed for that file Chris. ?????????????

Yep ... It's late and have I gotten into the habit of putting that in because I'm on the Merc board a lot, where the files do have a password.. (Maybe it's a better class of person over there and we want to keep the riff-raff out... ).

OK guys... [size=+2]NO PASSWORD ON THE FILE!!![/SIZE]

Chris....
[size=-5]Happy Don?[/size]

 

[boat4fun83]

Re: Bellows tool

Correct me if I'm wrong but you shouldn't need to have your exhaust bellows hooked up so I personally wouldn't worry about replacing it. I've been running mine unhooked for 3 years now and it doesn't sound much different.