New to me boat, replace gimbal bearing and bellows or leave alone

[nathanj988]

I am going through my '97 Chris Craft with a 5.7 VP DuoProp that I recently purchased and I am trying to make sure it is water ready and no surprises.

I pulled the outdrive last night and the u-joint bellows are dry and the u-joint looked good with no rust. I haven't tested the joint yet to see if there is any play. My question is do I go in there and replace both bellows and the gimbal bearing or do I just check the condition and if good, leave it alone?

The previous owner said that the boat was repowered in 2010, but I haven't found anything to suggest that it was. Assuming that a new block was put into it, the gimbal bearing and other items may have been overhauled at the same time.

How many years do you keep a gimbal bearing before replacing it? How long for the u-joint bellows?

Thanks,
Nathan

 

[aerobat]

Re: New to me boat, replace gimbal bearing and bellows or leave alone

My question is do I go in there and replace both bellows and the gimbal bearing or do I just check the condition and if good, leave it alone?

there is no such a thing like preventive changing of the u-joint or gimbal bearing in a scheduled interval - so, when you have no issues with the gimbal grease it freshly and run the boat.

when it comes to bellows you may change it for prevention when you removed the drive or just also leave it alone when it looks good and dry.

 

[nathanj988]

Re: New to me boat, replace gimbal bearing and bellows or leave alone

Thanks, I'll put some new grease in the gimbal bearing and see what kind of grease comes out. I'll obviously spin it too to see how it feels.

When I ran the engine on the trailer using muffs, I noticed a lot of water pouring out from in front of the drive. That makes me think the exhaust bellows is torn, although I haven't looked at it yet. I also noticed water coming through the housing in front of the prop, where the prop shaft bearing would be. I think that may be normal, however I'm not sure. Water also came through the proper area above the props in the rectangular exhaust port area.

 

[aerobat]

Re: New to me boat, replace gimbal bearing and bellows or leave alone

the exhaust bellow is punctured intentionally by design to be flooded when boat in water and self drain when put on land. there is nothing wrong when you saw a lot of water in many places when running the boat on muffs.

as a general rule i would say that if the boat feels and sounds right it is right.