Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

[guyaverage]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

'Lucky' is the correct word. If you think alignment bars are expensive, wait until you see how much your new coupler is going to cost if you try to get by without it.

The chances of properly aligning your new gimbal bearing successfully without an alignment tool are slim at best. Beg, borrow, or steal one, but dont try to do this without it.

You might plan on pumping about $20 of grease through those ujoints to get all the gunk out, or they arent going to make it through the summer either. Ugh.

With all that gunk the bellows, have you popped open the drive to see if anything made its way in there too?

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

'Lucky' is the correct word. If you think alignment bars are expensive, wait until you see how much your new coupler is going to cost if you try to get by without it.

The chances of properly aligning your new gimbal bearing successfully without an alignment tool are slim at best. Beg, borrow, or steal one, but dont try to do this without it.

You might plan on pumping about $20 of grease through those ujoints to get all the gunk out, or they arent going to make it through the summer either. Ugh.

With all that gunk the bellows, have you popped open the drive to see if anything made its way in there too?

i thought it had to be aligned for the drive shaft to slide in?

and i drained the drive before i removed it, the lube didn't look to bad, didn't show any evidence of water being in it

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

found a guy who makes alignment tools on ebay, got one coming for $36 shipped

 

[joncrisler]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

In response to Don S.'s "water cannot get in there due to a bad shift shaft seal"-

I strongly disagree- if you have the old style shift shaft seals, they tend to seal pretty poorly. This happened to me on my boat: what seems to occur is that the the boat is run hard, the drive is hot, and the oil (and air pocket at top of upper gearcase ) expand slightly due to the heat. This causes a pressure in the bellows area that might blow a few bubbles out through the shift shaft seal. When the drive cools, the pressure turns into a slight vacuum, and it draws a bit of water into the bellows area. With enough water in there, the cycle could even pull water past the upper seals into the drive. I had rebuilt the drive, replaced bellows etc. twice without any improvement. I finally got a suggestion from an old-time marine mechanic about the old style seal and he suggested the new style. Is about a $25 part or so, but you have to disassemble the shift shaft which in my case required drilling the sift arm off- this is also an inexpensive part- dont be afraid to drill it- sacrafice the arm for the much more expensive shaft. He told me "you would think with the design, even if the bellows was perfect and everything was perfect, that even with a bad seal it would not leak. But it does !". I kept pressing the Merc support guys and after months of calls somebody finally gave me the above explanation. I was of the same belief as Don- "no way water can get up there even if the seal is bad", but somehow it does.
This entire process stumped me for years and caused needless overhauls of the upper and lower gearcases, even though they always passed pressure tests.
The newer style kit is a bronze sleeve with seals inside, which is pressed in. You can "press" it in using a bolt, nut, old washers and possibly an old socket without removing the bellhousing- in reality you are "pulling" it in rather than pressing, but the result is the same. Given that you have the drive this far apart, you should go ahead and put in the Gen II seal.

 

[elkhunter338]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

I had a similar problem. my Bellows where 5 yrs old stored inside and looked great. I almost did not replace the bellows, but after looking real hard I found one small cut (how it got there who knows, looked like a razer blade slice). Replaced bellows no more water leak, however after 20 hrs of operation the oil seal in the outdrive leaked because the seal surface rusted. Then I had to have the seal replaced on the outdrive. SEI drive still under warranty they rebuilt the whole upper unit, only thing that I got back that was orginal was the housing. That was my experience.

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

i'm having trouble getting the bell housing off. i think the shift cable is holding me up, should i disconnect it at the bell housing or is there a better way to do it?

 

[dubs283]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

post #19

there is a link to download the manual for your drive

have you done that and read up??

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

yes i read that. the nut on the cable is way down in there and looks like it is gonna be a PITA. seems like i remember reading about a way to disconnect something in the engine compartment to allow enough slack to change the bellows.

 

[dubs283]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

you may as well just change out the shift cable at this time anyways, you are in there, spend the extra $80 and know that the cable is new and right

do a quich search on iboats about changing an alpha shift cable, lots of info out there

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

you may as well just change out the shift cable at this time anyways, you are in there, spend the extra $80 and know that the cable is new and right

do a quich search on iboats about changing an alpha shift cable, lots of info out there

do they go bad often? $80 is a lot to spend on something if it doesn't need replaced and isn't prone to failure.

the boat does do something funny about shifting though, out of the water it shifts fine, but in water you have to go a little past neutral to get it out of gear. say your going from forward to neutral, then you have to pull back until you are almost in reverse before you will be in neutral. i assume this is due to a miss adjustment, my friend said it has done this ever since the shop replaced the drive

 

[dubs283]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

could be due to misadjustment, how old is the cable in there now??

i was basing my suggestion on you not knowing the history of the boat

if you arent changing the cable out, you can leave it attached to the bellhousing, just remove the clamp on the bellows and disconnect the end at the shift plate assy to allow for slack

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

could be due to misadjustment, how old is the cable in there now??

i was basing my suggestion on you not knowing the history of the boat

if you arent changing the cable out, you can leave it attached to the bellhousing, just remove the clamp on the bellows and disconnect the end at the shift plate assy to allow for slack

ok that is what i was wondering

 

[vr4boy]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

found a guy who makes alignment tools on ebay, got one coming for $36 shipped

i bought the alignment tool(a must) on ebay-was more like 2 tools in one...alignment and bearing installer tool.
i used this bearing puller from harbor freight (used the smaller one of the 3) and worked perfect for the gimaball bearing(coupled with a bmf slide hammer lol)-the 3 jaw pullers didnt work for me...
good luck.

bearing puller:
http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/pullers/rear-axle-bearing-puller-set-66380.html

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

i bought the alignment tool(a must) on ebay-was more like 2 tools in one...alignment and bearing installer tool.
i used this bearing puller from harbor freight (used the smaller one of the 3) and worked perfect for the gimaball bearing(coupled with a bmf slide hammer lol)-the 3 jaw pullers didnt work for me...
good luck.

bearing puller:
http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/pullers/rear-axle-bearing-puller-set-66380.html

good to know, i'll keep that in mind if my 3 jaw lets me down

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

ok, how easy should the alignment tool go in? i can get it in, but it takes some shoving. also how easy should it turn? once it is in the coupler it is harder to turn, but i can still turn it with one hand

 

[StevenT]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

ok, how easy should the alignment tool go in? i can get it in, but it takes some shoving. also how easy should it turn? once it is in the coupler it is harder to turn, but i can still turn it with one hand

This You tube link should help you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYwnK8mjHdw

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

well new gimbal bearing is in, new bellows are in, bell housing is back on, engine is aligned. just need to put the drive back on and fill it with gear lube

 

[joncrisler]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

Did you put in the new shift shaft seal ?

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

nope, it didn't look like it had been in the shiftter cable area when i pulled the drive

 

[atistang]

Re: Help me figure out how water is getting in my Gimbal Housing

ok guys, what could i have done wrong?

i have no forward gear, and it will engage reverse, but when it does the throttle stops right there. I can move the throttle into forward and go all the way to WOT but it doesn't engage forward.

now i noticed when i went to put the drive back in there was this lever on the lower part of the drive that could be turned, it kept getting cocked sideways in two groves on the bellhousing, i had to hold it strait to get it to go in. could it be 180 degrees out? could the shift cable have came out of the little roller?(i'm 99% sure that didn't happen)



HELP!