Mysterious Metal O-ring in Cobra SX Gimbal Bearing

[happycamper]

I pulled the drive on my '97 Cobra SX drive to lube the gimbal bearing and u-joints. After greasing the gimbal bearing through the zerk on the side, I cleaned out the excess grease from the center of the bearing, and ended up with a round, flexible, metal O-ring on the grease rag.

I can't find this o-ring in my VP/OMC manuals, nor in any online documentation. I beleive it can from a groove that runs around the inner diameter of the gimble bearing, so I put in that location and reassembled the drive.

I'm still a little uncomfortable about where this thing came from. Any comments about it would be appreciated.

Thanks,
HappyCamper
'97 Four Winns Horizon QX, Volvo Penta 3.0L, Cobra SX

 

[Don S]

Re: Mysterious Metal O-ring in Cobra SX Gimbal Bearing

It's just the ring that goes in the lip seal forward of the bearing. It falls out of them about 75% of the time. The good news is, it really isn't needed in that application. So throw it away and don't worry about it.

 

[happycamper]

Re: Mysterious Metal O-ring in Cobra SX Gimbal Bearing

Thanks Don,

Hopefully it stays where I put it. However, if it does move around, I don't think it'll do much damage until the next time I pull the drive, since it's so flimsy.

happycamper