Hello,
New the forum, and to boating as well. But not new to mechanical stuff.
I own a 1990 Sea Ray 280 sundancer with twin merc 5.7 litre alpha 1 gen 1 motors and outdrives. I just spent the last week working on the gimbal bearings and replacing them along with the bellows. I got the old bearings out after going several rounds with them. But they came out finally. I cleaned up the gimbal area. replaced the oil seal behind the gimbal bearing, lined up the lube hole with the housing, lubed the oustide of the new bearing, set it in the hole and began to lightly tap it into place with the bearing pusher tool. To my amazement the new gimbal bearing went right in without much whacking. I mean my wife's 90 yr old grandma coulda pushed this thing in. I then used the alignment tool and got everything set and installed a new CR outdrive I purchased from SEI. The new drive went in fairly easy and got everything bolted back up. put oil in the outdrive (bottom up), reattchaed the shift cable and started it up to check everything on the port side. I heard noise coming from the gimbal area. Not sure why.
Now on to the starboard motor. did everything exactly the way I did for the port. except It was late and I was struugling trying to figure out why the shifter on the outdrive and the shifter on the cable slider were moving in opposite directions. ( took me several hours to realize I was stupid and I was trying to install the outdrive while in reverse) Anyhow. During these couple hours I had removed the outdrive a couple times to check the shift cable position and to make sure it didnt slide out of the roller carrier. The the strange part. While removing the outdrive, 2 times the gimbal bearing came out while still attached to the yoke. I thought "huh" pulled the bearing off the yoke. proceeded to set it back in it's placed and I literally could push it back in with my fingers. SO my questions Is this. Are the bearings suppose to go in that easy? when I ordered the gimbal repair kits I ordered them for alpha 1 gen 1. I ordered them mercaftermarkets.com. Has anyone else had this happen? I hear the same noise coming from the starboard gimbal area when that engine running as well. could these bearings not be the right tolerance? any help would be appreciated.
New the forum, and to boating as well. But not new to mechanical stuff.
I own a 1990 Sea Ray 280 sundancer with twin merc 5.7 litre alpha 1 gen 1 motors and outdrives. I just spent the last week working on the gimbal bearings and replacing them along with the bellows. I got the old bearings out after going several rounds with them. But they came out finally. I cleaned up the gimbal area. replaced the oil seal behind the gimbal bearing, lined up the lube hole with the housing, lubed the oustide of the new bearing, set it in the hole and began to lightly tap it into place with the bearing pusher tool. To my amazement the new gimbal bearing went right in without much whacking. I mean my wife's 90 yr old grandma coulda pushed this thing in. I then used the alignment tool and got everything set and installed a new CR outdrive I purchased from SEI. The new drive went in fairly easy and got everything bolted back up. put oil in the outdrive (bottom up), reattchaed the shift cable and started it up to check everything on the port side. I heard noise coming from the gimbal area. Not sure why.
Now on to the starboard motor. did everything exactly the way I did for the port. except It was late and I was struugling trying to figure out why the shifter on the outdrive and the shifter on the cable slider were moving in opposite directions. ( took me several hours to realize I was stupid and I was trying to install the outdrive while in reverse) Anyhow. During these couple hours I had removed the outdrive a couple times to check the shift cable position and to make sure it didnt slide out of the roller carrier. The the strange part. While removing the outdrive, 2 times the gimbal bearing came out while still attached to the yoke. I thought "huh" pulled the bearing off the yoke. proceeded to set it back in it's placed and I literally could push it back in with my fingers. SO my questions Is this. Are the bearings suppose to go in that easy? when I ordered the gimbal repair kits I ordered them for alpha 1 gen 1. I ordered them mercaftermarkets.com. Has anyone else had this happen? I hear the same noise coming from the starboard gimbal area when that engine running as well. could these bearings not be the right tolerance? any help would be appreciated.
