Gimbal bearing removal

[bj2455]

I've recently pulled the Alpha One Gen1 outdrive off my 89 SeaRay with a 5.7L. I wanted to change the Gimbal bearing while it was off cause it didn't feel quite a smooth as the replacement I bought. I got a loaner 5# slide bar puller from the local auto parts store and tried to get the bearing out. I broke the legs off the puller. Just how much should/does it take to get one of these Gimbal bearings out?

I reassembled the drive wanting to use the boat for the weekend and all went back together very smoothly. Only issue I found was the throttle/shifter no longer forces me to squeeze the handle to move from neutral to drive or reverse. Did I damage something in reassembly? The unit was in forward both to pull the drive and reinstall it. It took very little pressure to reattach the outdrive to the bell housing. Did I miss something in the reassembly?

This forum is absolutely the greatest source of information I have ever seen. Thanks for all the great reading and advice. Makes life for us DIY'ers so much simplier.

Bill

 

[dingdongs]

Re: Gimbal bearing removal

come from uk so excuse any differing tech terms.i recently removed mine with a lot of grief too.i had to heat the housing up with a blow torch for about 5 minutes a couple of times whilst using the reversible hammer.as you have the new bearing you will see it has a corrugated ring.this is all that holds it in normally but oxidising attacks the ally and tends to weld itself to the first part of the bearing facing you.i scrapped mine a little with a feeler .002"first but it would not budge until i heated it up.then it was out in 5 minutes.good luck and p.s.mine was a 1974.other problem you have can only be something not aligned as you removed.regards steve

 

[bj2455]

Re: Gimbal bearing removal

Thanks Steve,
I'll give heat a try. Guess I cant damage the bearing any...plan to replace it anyway if I can get the old one out.

Bill

 

[45Auto]

Re: Gimbal bearing removal

I've seen sevaral gimbal bearings that would not budge with a huge slide puller that came right out when using a threaded puller (like the official merc tool). Try to borrow a threaded puller if you can.

The outdrive doesn't have anything to do with the button in the hndle, that's all internal to the control unit.

 

[jtybt]

Re: Gimbal bearing removal

I hate slide hammers with a passion so I make my own threaded pullers.

You can buy a set of wobble head threaded pullers at Harbor freight on sale for about $25.

 

[dubs283]

Re: Gimbal bearing removal

never had any problems pulling gimbal bearings using a 10 lb. OTC slide hammer with a three jaw end

 

[jtybt]

Re: Gimbal bearing removal

They made newer, slightly larger gimbal bearings. I the larger one was put in the older gimbal housing you could have trouble.

Doing a transom rebuild, I needed a 15 lb sledge hammer with the gimbal housing on blocks to remove a frozen gimbal bearing..

Heat also might have worked better in that situation.