Water in bellows of sitting boat, what do i check?

[soulhawaii]

My neverending project of a boat just gave me more fun stuff do deal with. I'm in the process of rebuilding the 4.3l engine and i removed the drive today to find this inside (picture). Looks like water has been in here for a while not sure how long, there's some heavy surface rust on the middle of the shaft, little signs of surface rust on the u joints. My question is what do i do now? What should I check and or replace? Already ordering new gaskets as a start. I already did the impeller and didn't find water in the oil from what i could tell. Also the bellows look like there's no crack but ill look again. I believe this water came from when the seller tried to start the engine before selling it to me 1 month ago.

 

[soulhawaii]

Also if someone can help me with the name of this seal that fell off so i can order a new one.

 

[achris]

Hello soulhawaii

Generally when posting and asking questions about your engine and drive we need the year and serial number of them (both engine and drive) so we can identify them (and year of the boat is not always the same as the engine). As Mercruiser have been making drives and marinizing engines since about 1963, identifying them is a rather important point.

From the photos, it look like a Gen II drive and transom assembly.

After a bellows leak I usually replace, the bellows (and make sure I know where the water came in!), uni joints (they may look and feel ok now, but in a few months, they WILL fail), gimbal bearing (same rule as unis). I also very closely inspect the seal surface on the yoke at the front of the drive. It also looks like you've had water in the shift cable slide area, so I would be replacing the upper shift shaft seal, and pulling the cable apart and very thoroghly cleaning it.

As for the 'seal that fell out'. Where did it fall out of?

Chris...........

 

[Scott06]

Also if someone can help me with the name of this seal that fell off so i can order a new one.

That looks like the driveshaft bellows sleeve, it’s what locks the aft end of the bellows to bellhousing, if this wasn’t in properly probably why it was leaking

 

[Bt Doctur]

the sleeve does not normally fall out in correctly installed there is a large rubber ring that also seals that area

 

[Rick Stephens]

Nothing much to add to the above. A wet shift linkage area will introduce water to the lower shift cable, so as Chris said, make sure you pull the core out and clean it and thoroughly spray out the jacket and blow it out. The core and jacket should not be lubricated when you reassemble. The picture does look like you are missing the retainer ring for the bellows. And the rubber square seal that stacks in in front of that ring should be glued into the bell housing. Not sure I'd 100% replace the bellows while I'm in there, but would be tempted unless the current one was 100% perfect.

I had an outdrive with a crack that leaked. Ended up replacing u-joints. I used Napa sourced automotive ones and they worked just fine for ~$12 each. Still in there. The gimbal bearing as well won't survive long after submersion.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Also if someone can help me with the name of this seal that fell off so i can order a new one.

That looks like the o-ring that seals around the water passage opening (the opening right above the stud in the lower left of the first picture). When you get the gasket kit for when you replace your outdrive, which you will need, that o-ring will be included, along with several others and the large gasket that sits on the flat mating surface between the drive and the bell housing).

 

[soulhawaii]

Thanks for all the responses, sorry I forgot to add in the extra information, it was late when i was working on the boat and it's been one problem after another so I was frustrated and forgot to add it in! This forum has been the most valuable thing since I got the boat. Today i inspected everything and the shifter rubber piece, the bellow? has a large crack in it. The other bellows look good, should i still replace them? I ordered the bearing, and the bellows repair kit. I need to look into the uni joints.

As for that metal seal and the rubber peice it does look like it's from the sleeve, it looks somewhat damaged when it fell out, so I made sure the kit had one of those as well. Hopefully all goes well, thank you everyone for the replies again. Pulling the block today, not excited. Hopefully no more surprises!