Re: cobra bellows
Notes from a true beginner (little mechanical experience with boats or cars). I found replacing the bellows to be very easy. <br /><br />Although you can replace without taking the pivot housing off, I took it off cause I was replacing the transom shift cable. Didn't need to fool with the gimbal or gimbal housing. <br /><br />Removing the pivot housing was easy, just a couple of things to note: <br /><br />If you take it off you're gonna have to readjust the shift system. Shouldn't be difficult if you follow the instructions in Stuarts documentation and the Service Manual, but I still haven't got mine exactly right (of course it was off before I pulled the pivot housing; I think I might have a problem with the shift rod, will check that out later, but at least I've got things 'adjusted' so the boat is drivable for now).<br /><br />Hardest thing about pulling the pivot housing was that you need a 1/2" hex drive socket (male). Noone I knew had one, but a friend did have a weird kind of large drill bit (maybe for drilling into rock?) with a 1/2" hex shaft. We just evened the end of the shaft on a grinder and it worked great with a socket wrench (drill bit end fit in a regular socket). A chisel or something similar might have a 1/2" hex shaft if you ever need to pull the pivot housing and don't want to buy a 1/2" hex drive.<br /><br />NOTE: as stated in Stuarts documentation, the u-joint bellows is asymmetrical, i.e., it has more ribs on one side than the other. You want to position so you have the side with more ribs on the bottom to provide more flex when the drive is raised. I forgot to do that, so had to reposition the bellows after I put the pivot housing back on. As stated above, not too difficult, except getting access to bolt on the worm clamp to loosen & tighten it was a bit of a pita. You want it between 1 & 2 o'clock so as to avoid interfering with anything when turning. I needed a combination of drive extensions and a jointed adaptor to get acceptable access. <br /><br />vatter41- the shift bellows on a Cobra is inside the engine compartment at the top of the shift cable tube, shouoldn't be an issue at all w.r.t. the transom end of things.
