smashed my bell housing bad today. not good

[mattymuch]

Well,
I got a new outdrive probably 2 weeks ago and I was pulling it out today and the trim wasn't completely up. I made some trailer adjustments so I wanted to reset the boat and back into the water. The outdrive caught and cracked my whole bell housing bad! busted the gimbal ring aswell. there seems to be no damage to the actual Gimbal housing just the gimbal ring and bell, what would I be looking at to fix this? could I have damaged anything else? all my bellows are new.

Boat is a 1985 four winns Horizon Cuddy Merc 230

 

[NHGuy]

Wow, that's a big impact! Pressure test the drive too.

 

[alldodge]

I think that's age and fatigue. It may have never happened if you didn't hit something, but do think the aluminum was probably starting to crack prior. You should be good, and testing the drive as NH mentioned would be a very good idea

 

[mattymuch]

AllDodge .. Funny you say that, one reason I replaced the outdrive was because it was full of hairline cracks. today when I backed into the water to adjust the boat, the drive hit the concrete just a bit never did I think it would have done that amount of damage. this wasn't anything I hit underway. just bumped the drive off the boat landing. I was shocked. the new outdrive has maybe 5hrs total on it was just pulling the boat out to change drive gear oil for break in.

 

[thumpar]

Ouch! Check to make sure the gimbal housing isn't damaged around the bearing. Time to just start pulling it apart and see what all needs to be done.

 

[mattymuch]

If I Had a Marina Tear into this what kind of price would I be looking at? like I said the drive just got caught on the boat landing concrete when backing up on the trailer this was the result.

 

[Alumarine]

Are you insured?

 

[thumpar]

I would at least start the job myself. Pull the drive off the bellhousing first.

 

[tpenfield]

You are looking at about $2K to fix at a shop . . . maybe $1K or less as a DIY.

 

[Mischief Managed]

The gimbal ring is going to cost you, good used ones are hard to find so you'll likely need a new one. The bell housing should be easy to get used for cheap money. The repair work is pretty straightforward. I captured many of the steps for this work in this photo album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1500205917053.2071101.1591328395&type=1&l=a95d978078

 

[spoilsofwar]

Drive damage aside, why on earth does your drain plug housing look like that? Also appears to be a lot of sketchy sealing attempts done around the gimbal housing. Might be a good thing it all has to come off.... Use the opportunity to fix your transom and things that bolt to/thru it properly.