Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

[Isoprime]

Greetings all. Just signed up so not 100% sure on the form yet....

After installing a $300 SS prop yesterday the first trip of the year ended badly with busting it on a hidden something, a slight bend in the shaft, guessing ~5 thou, (nearly all at the tip). Finally got back on the trailer (the worst ramp I ever used) and pulled the drain plug and waited 5 min for the water to come out....

Read thru a bunch of past posts and it seems the 5 thou is probably livable?
Poked at the bellows and there is a hole big enough for my finger in the shift boot but the others seems OK. All the same will replace all.

Actual question:
A gimble bearing comes with the transom seal kit but I read you need an alignment tool to install it. Do I need one or just want to have it if available?
If the current one feels OK should I just let it be?

Any other words of wisdom that might stop me making anything worse also aprreciated.

Much thanks

Nick..

 

[Don S]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

If you do your own maintenance, you need an alignment bar PERIOD.

Without it you are just a matter of time till you learn what expensive is.

 

[JustJason]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

on the cheap???? nah, less then 5 though. paying somebody probably 2K - 2500 to repair the lower unit, do the bellow and replace the gimbal bearing. Thats parts and labor. Might as well replace the shift cable to while your in there. But that is as ballpark as ballpark gets without seeing the boat and what corrosion and other junk is involved.
If your a DIY'r... you need more tools than an alignment bar to do that job... and i'm not even talking about what you need to set the lower unit correctly.

 

[Rocky_Road]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

SEI sells complete (new) outdrives for less than what you posted...and they are warranted for 3 years. They also sell just the lower units.

I am sure that iboats offers them on their Mercruiser link above....

 

[Isoprime]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

OK, so after a bit of an online hunt I found
MERCRUISER ALIGNMENT, GIMBAL BEARING, GREASE SEAL TOOLS
For $105 inc shipping.
Looks like about an afternoons work to pull the drive, swap the 3 bellows and try and not screw up swapping the gimble bearing....
I swapped the exhust bellows on my last boat (mored off Salem, MA so in the ocean 24/7) w/o removing anything and that was a major PITA. This boat is not quite 10yo but only has 60hrs lake use so thus far has been quite nice to work on....
My stuff wont be here till Mon so will report back then, hopfully to have been out for a sucessful test run

On a side note, anyone tried those SEI drives?
Sure are cheap and seem very tempting vs a $2k plus rebuild.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

Looks like about an afternoons work to pull the drive, swap the 3 bellows and try and not screw up swapping the gimble bearing....

Ayuh,... Welcome Aboard,.... The Gimbel Bearing is the Easy part,.....

Btw,.... Bring Plenty of Bandaids,.. The Bellows are usually a Knuckle Buster....

 

[Rocky_Road]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

OK, so after a bit of an online hunt I found
MERCRUISER ALIGNMENT, GIMBAL BEARING, GREASE SEAL TOOLS
For $105 inc shipping.
Looks like about an afternoons work to pull the drive, swap the 3 bellows and try and not screw up swapping the gimble bearing....
I swapped the exhust bellows on my last boat (mored off Salem, MA so in the ocean 24/7) w/o removing anything and that was a major PITA. This boat is not quite 10yo but only has 60hrs lake use so thus far has been quite nice to work on....
My stuff wont be here till Mon so will report back then, hopfully to have been out for a sucessful test run

On a side note, anyone tried those SEI drives?
Sure are cheap and seem very tempting vs a $2k plus rebuild.

Here is a pretty balanced discussion about SEI:

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=300786&highlight=sei

You will see that no one had anything 'bad' to say about SEI...except that they aren't made by Mercury....

 

[ShaneCarroll]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

Looks like about an afternoons work to pull the drive, swap the 3 bellows and try and not screw up swapping the gimble bearing....
.

Well, I was in the process of doing the same to my Gen II. It is more than an afternoon's worth of work. Took me about three hours at least to remove old gimbal bearing. While you're in there, check the u-joints as well. The bellows are not much fun either.

 

[Isoprime]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

OK, so I got most of the drive apart.
Learned a few things:
The Sierra hinge pin tool is a POS, $2 hex key worked great tho....
If you don't remove the drive oil tube from the feedthru the barb breaks off.
HFT makes a crappy slide hammer.
A good slide hammer and a lil heat pops the gimble bearing right out

Now I'm waiting on the plastic feedthru and a contortionist (sp?) to install it.
Bellows look easy enough.
May or may not have undone more shifter cable bits than I should have.....
Might need a lil help getting that all back where it used to be.

Also I got a gible bearing installer/sealer driver/drive alignment combo from some guy on ebay. It arrived minus the promised instructions as to how/where to drill the hold for the bearing installer part.
If anyone has any suggestions they would be most welcome.
Thanks

Nick..

 

[ShaneCarroll]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

I got my alignment tool and I thought it was lacking instructions as well. Most people will wrap the instructions behind the shipping label. They probably just lined it with brown shipping paper, right? Check your package again.
The alignment tool is pretty straight forward, though. Put grease on the end, push it through the gimbal bearing, and it should go straight back. Some of the experts on here told me to look for 3 rings in the grease on the end, to be able to tell if it is far enough.

 

[Isoprime]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

LOL, that's what the guy said too....
He also emailed a copy.
Problem was the first thing it said was BEFORE removing the old bearing... Mark the shaft of the alignment tool and use that to drill the hole for the bearing driver.
It didn't arrive until after this was possible.
Looks like I can probably figure it out from the grease marks from the old bearing but any tips most welcome.

I'm considering drilling out the plastic drive lube feedtru I broke. Looks easier than trying to figure out the E clip blind. Thoughts?

Back to it in the AM so fingers crosed...

 

[Polar_Bus]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

Well, I was in the process of doing the same to my Gen II. It is more than an afternoon's worth of work. Took me about three hours at least to remove old gimbal bearing. While you're in there, check the u-joints as well. The bellows are not much fun either.

I did my gimbal last fall. ALL DAY, PLUS NEXT MORNING JOB in reality (and I had an expert marine tech at the other end of my cell phone the entire time) LOL. You will also need a kick butt Bimford 5000 heavy duty slide hammer to extract the bearing as well (like a 10 pounder)

Also have a GOOD look at the trim sensors as well, if the wires look worn right at the sensors, do yourself a big time saver favor and replace them NOW while the bell housing is off ! Those trim senser wires break all the time and then your trim and guage won't work

 

[ShaneCarroll]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

Uh oh, so you mean to tell me that if the trim limit senders have broken wires, the trim won't work?? I thought that only the trim gauge would not work, which I am not too concerned about the gauge. Well, I guess it's good that the outdrive is still off. If this is the case, I will order them tonight when I get home from work.

 

[Isoprime]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

Gimble bearing depth....
According the the instructions with the drive alignment tool the gimble bearing depth should be kept the same as it was on the old unit.
Some other instructions say drive it home. The old bearing was pretty much flush with the face of the housing so a long way from home.
It could very well be the last person to change it didn't do it well but it doesn't look like the drive have been apart before.

Also noticed a real half *** trim sensor swap. wires cut and crimped rather than replacd with sensors......
Guess I'll be needing to redo that properly now too as I REALLY don't want to have all this apart again anytime soon/ever.

 

[ShaneCarroll]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

I found trim sensors on eBay for about $65. Check out Jim's Marine on eBay, great guy, fast shipping, great prices. I have done quite a bit of business with him, and I will go to him before anyone else. BTW, the trim DOES work without the sensor and sender. I am going to replace mine also, just because I don't want to have one of those boats that when you use it, you have to do a certain thing for this to work, tap the engine there to start, etc.

 

[Don S]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

According the the instructions with the drive alignment tool the gimble bearing depth should be kept the same as it was on the old unit.
Some other instructions say drive it home. The old bearing was pretty much flush with the face of the housing so a long way from home.

I'm not sure what you are reading, too scary to think about, but if you look at where the gimbal bearing set in the gimbal housing you will see how far it has to go. The outer ring of the bearing needs to go full depth.

I sure hope you aren't trying to install the gimbal bearing with an alignment bar, if you are, you are making a BIG mistake......... HUGE!!!!

 

[Isoprime]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

The bar came with a machined ring that bolts to it then you use the combined tool to drive in the bearing.
Least that's what it said in the instructions that came with it.
If that really is such a crappy idea then I'm open to suggestions.
Wont get to mess with it till Thurs most likely.
Thanks

Nick..

 

[Rocky_Road]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

Here is what he has...is supposed to install the bearing, and the seal, as well as aligning:

 

[Isoprime]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

Thanks,
Yes exactly that.
I'm still unsure as to that to do with the seal driver (aluminum ring).

Also anyone have a trick to installing the ring that goes in the gimble bellows?

I was told the U joints were sealed for life?? Doesn't seem like greasing everything in that area could hurt any but thought it wise to ask.

 

[ShaneCarroll]

Re: Replacing gimble bearing, Alpha Gen 2

If you want to attach that ring inside the drive shaft bellows, call your friend who is good at making ships in bottles. He is probably the only one who can do it quickly. . I had to use two fat flathead screwdrivers, hold those at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock, and have someone come in with a third screwdriver and try to press it in.
It took hours, many times you think you have it, and the dang thing pops out again!! I was so frustrated, I remember saying before hand: "Oh, just pop this metal ring in there, piece of cake. . ." Famous last words.

If you cannot grease your u-joints, I would suggest replacing them with a model that can be greased.