Alpha 1 gen 1 Watery grease in gimbal bellows

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Tanker_01

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I took my outdrive off to replace the gimbal bearing and my gimbal housing bellows was full of watery grease! There are not any tears in either bellows so where else could the water be coming in from? What is the best thing to use to clean off of it out of there, is it safe to spray brake cleaner into there and scoop it out? or maybe a water hose?
 
When you say watery grease could you be refering to gearbox (outdrive) oil that has become saturated to form "milkshake" ?
 
If so if the outdrive is getting overly hot and there has been water ingress it can blow oil past the seal as pressure builds from steam. In the past I have also had impeller house seal failure which pumped water into the gearbox and forced oil out without the drive getting hot, but water in a drive can come from many places. What does the outdrive oil look like? And did it smell burnt?
 
It was definitely milk shakey yes. I haven't drained the oil from the outdrive yet (not actually sure how to do that). How would the outdrive pass oil into where the u joints are? Where would it blow it in from? The huge o-ring that goes around the shaft input had some small tears on it and the gasket for the exhaust and U joints seems ok but definately old. Should I drain the out drive and take the impeller apart then? I have a new impeller on the way already.
 
I think you need to take the drive in for a dealer service and have seals replaced and the unit pressure tested. Anything more than doing the impeller is not for the novice and will end in heartache. I had to replace an entire MR drive simply from slightly over torqueing the top cap bolts (the bearing is shimmed). 20 nm later the upper gearbox shredded itself rather spectacularly.
 
I pulled the lower unit drain and low and behold the oil in there was also watery. Looks like thats where its all coming from. I called a local marina and am going to have them refresh the whole outboard for me including u-joints, doesnt seem like it will be too expensive as it is all routine maintenance items. I am still going to do the gimbal bearing myself as it seems rather trivial. If I have to do bellows too down the road I at least have those now ready to go.
 
It sounds like the seals under the waterpump have gone, easy to replace as its best to buy the complete plastic housing with the seals ready fitted. I would say from experience replacing the gimbal bearing is the least trivial job unless you have a proper workshop removal tool as we have, not a slide hammer. You will also need the tool to check and adjust the bearing and enginw are correctly lined up after the new bearing is in which also requires a special tool to insert it. Not trying to put you off but having done over a hundred bearing replacements I know half the job is having the right tools. If the bellows are more than 5 yrs old then definitely replace them, check the gearshift bellows while you are in there and check the oil hose on the starboard side above the shift wire for cracks, these perish and often don’t have tie wraps at the ends to secure them. If you replace the gear shift bellows throw away the metal crimp that goes around the outer end as they rust away in months, use two tie wraps instead.
 
I have the tool kit to remove/install the gimbal bearing as well as the engine alignment tool so I am aware what is involved in replacing it. I was an aircraft mechanic before I became an Engineer so I have replaced my fair share of hard to get to bearings. I'm not going to pay a guy $100 for a job I can do in under an hour, when it comes to rebuilding the out drive though that is a different story. I just haven't dealt with marine wrench turning yet which is why I am here. I'm not super familiar with the amount of water-tightness that is involved with these out drives.

The bellows are allegedly 2 years old so I think as long as I dont see any apparent holes in them or the shift cable boot I am just going to leave them as is for now and be sure to check on them every time I take the boat out. If they start to take on water I will replace them.
 
oldgit said:
"am just going to leave them as is for now "
How much is new set of bellows ?
Click to expand...

I already have them. I am not going to replace the ones that are on there if they are not worn out. There is nothing wrong with taking it out once or twice and pulling the outdrive off each time to see if any water got in, if none gets in then I didn't waste any time doing them too early. Its not like its going to explode the first time if anything gets in there.
 
Maybe not explode, but most certainly make life miserable. I hear you though, but as a cost insurance thing, just change them. Skimp on the engine if you have to but the outdrive will bless you with many many years use if maintained properly and absolutely none if you dont.
 
Similar backgrounds I worked on aircraft back in the 80’s and yes remember that access was generally not a consideration when designing aircraft!
 
:p Well access wasn't a consideration on some sports cruisers either and mine notably. Never having been an aircraft mechanic I am still grateful for my aircraft long reach spanners which have been worth their weight in gold when trying to work on bolts buried way down in places like the swim platform and between panelling. 50 cm long 10 metric spanner, awesome. Gently does it. 20 million partial turns to undo a bolt though.
 
Pulled the Gimbal bearing out last night. no issues with that at all. Is it worth replacing the seal on the inside or is that not a regularly replaced item?
 
Does it just pull right out? Is there a stop for it when i install the new one? I would imagine I just install it with the same install tool I use for the bearing right?
 
Not sure on your tool I had mine fabricated with correct drifts
IIRC there is a shoulder against which the oil seal goes. You need to put it in with a drift.
When putting the gimbal bearing in make sure it aligns with grease nipple port. Freeze it overnight and insert cold if you can or use a plumbers coldshock spray

This vid goes through the steps although he also uses his own tools. It's worth reviewing

 
The gimbal bearing was modified several years ago to a sealed for life bearing with no facility to grease it, there is a blanking plug Included with every bearing now to replace the nipple so there is no chance of water ingress.
 
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