Rubber boot under outdrive?

[hunter0527]

What is the rubber corrugated looking rubber boot under the outdrive? This isnt from my boat but a pic I found on the net. I did notice that mine is a little dried out and starting to crack.

 

[FunInDuhSun]

Re: Rubber boot under outdrive?

It's called a bellows and it needs to be watertight. Replace it before it leaks.

 

[hunter0527]

Re: Rubber boot under outdrive?

Is that hard to replace or does a shop need to do it? what happens if it leaks?

 

[ziggy]

Re: Rubber boot under outdrive?

to me that looks like an exhaust bellows. there are three of them. drive shaft bellows, shift cable bellows and exhaust bellows. the exhaust bellows is the least important of the three as if they fail, you won't sink your boat. the other two are most critical. one of them springs a leak and ya may go blurb, blurb, blurb...

the exhaust bellow is easiest to get to, but will likely require a special tool to help expand them during installation. http://www.iboats.com/Bellows-Expan...2960511--**********.701870849--view_id.203923

the other two bellows are more difficult to replace but can be done..

if your gonna work on your sterndrive you must get a service manual by mercruiser so ya know how to work on your drive. they are not straight fwd. to be working on.

 

[hunter0527]

Re: Rubber boot under outdrive?

after youtube'ing it appears that it might be an exhaust bellow? The u joint bellow is inside the housing. this is outside and underneath the outdrive toward the boat transom. Is there a way to visually inspect the ujoint bellow without removing the outdrive or removing anything for that matter?

 

[hunter0527]

Re: Rubber boot under outdrive?

Is there a way to visually inspect the ujoint bellow without removing the outdrive or removing anything for that matter?

 

[Borchik]

Re: Rubber boot under outdrive?

With the drive up you can see much of the ujoint bellows. turn the drive from side to side and look at it for cracks or splits, if you see any its time to replace it. On a Merc drive same with the shift cable bellows. Leaks in either of them will sink your boat. The exhaust bellows, the one in your picture, you can take right off and you wont sink the boat, many of them have holes in them brand new to let water drain out of them. The best way to check the bellows is to pull the drive and make sure there is no water. It is always best to change them before they leak, bearings, ujoints and shift cables getting wet just makes it cost that much more to repair when the time comes.

 

[hunter0527]

Re: Rubber boot under outdrive?

Awesome, Thanks for the reply. I will check it out.

 

[JoLin]

Re: Rubber boot under outdrive?

If you don't have a service history on the boat (and I mean from maintenance and/or parts receipts- not 'the owner's word') then you should plan to pull the drive, inspect gimbal and u-joints, and replace all the bellows.

If the the exhaust bellows looks good and the boat is water-tight it probably isn't an emergency, but should be taken care of in the near future. I bought my boat from a dealer, and it was in the water when I took posession of it last Spring. It had gone through an external visual inspection by the surveyor, and was sea-trialed (no noise, loose steering or any other bad indications), so I decided to just run it for the season.

As soon as I took it out of the water, however, it was gone over with a fine-toothed comb and got a major 'tuneup'. The shop owner questioned me about any shifting issues (none), then they lubed it, replaced the bellows and a water intake tube, all the zincs, pressure tested the drive, inspected it all for signs of corrosion, then pronounced it 'good to go.' It was worth the money ($600) to give me that peace of mind and establish a baseline for future maintenance.

My .02