How long do gimbal bearings last

After seeing milky oil, it should have been torn down. Posted June 5, MarkNY Posted June 5, MarkNY Posted June 9, Posted June 9, I have a siggestion, take it to Hank. Lol [ Post made via Android ]. Xxx Posted June 10, Posted June 10, There is a exhaust bellow which is the big one and then there is a smaller one on the shift cable, this one is usually over looked and most of the time the problem, of you got it that far, I would replace the shift cable and both bellows plus all the seals that go in the lower end, not a bad time to replace lower water pump also, then your good to go for a couple of years.

MarkNY Posted June 10, Create an account or sign in to comment You need to be a member in order to leave a comment Create an account Sign up for a new account in our community. Register a new account. Sign in Already have an account? Sign In Now. Go to topic listing.

Sign In Sign Up. By lakeblueridge , September 7, in Boat Talk. Life lesson learned as it looks like this is now our problem after 1 month. Anyway I went to a local repair shop here in the Blue Ridge, GA area and he explained everything regarding the Gimbal bearing and how it works. Does this seem like a resonable deal? That's totally reasonable. Now is the time to educate yourself, sounds like he is replacing the exhaust and drive bellows.

One thing to ask him is about the shift bellows while you are there. When you purchasing used boat, be prepared to invest some amount of money in her. That is totally normal. He said one of them keeps water out of the gimble bearing. I wanted the plugs to match up underneath and thought if I brought something Newer it would be a mess to connect back up. Also the trim gauge and mph do not operate. I read here that the trim gauge can be difficult or expensive to fix but the mph should just be a clogged plug.

While you have the drive off it is the time to look at the trim sender. While replacing the 3 bellows and gimble bearing, you might as well as replace the lower shift cable and water inlet hose that is in behind the bell housing.

Make sure he checks the u-joints and engine alignment also By doing all that at this time you have covered about all the routine problems, except for the impeller in the lower drive. I say this because they will literally have their hands on each one of these items in order to gain access to the gimble bearing. Unfortunately if any one of these items ever fails down the road they would require tearing down the outdrive and removing the housing again to get to them.

In those cases it's a no brainer. OTOH, if your bearing takes a crap on it's own and the bellows appears to be in good shape then there's no functional reason to replace it. However, in most cases the bearing and bellows were probably installed at the same time and are roughly the same age.

To me it makes no sense to spend the time and money to replace the bearing and not spend the couple extra dollars to replace the bellows at the same time. I've seen more than once where a 5 or 10 year old bearing was replaced and in less than a year the boat was back in for a new bearing after that 5 - 10 year old bellows finally sprung a leak and took the new bearing with it. Now, if the bellows was replaced a few years ago and the bearing was not then doing just the bearing is more reasonable.

It really comes down to a boat by boat decision AND your own personal preference. My personal preference is to replace all wear parts whenever I need to get into the drive housing. In the long run I think it saves me money keeps my down time to a minimum.

Im not agruing that at all. I was just saying that you dont need to do the boots if they are in fine shape when doing the bearing. It is just a lot more labor to do that because you have to remove the bell housing for the drive to replace it. Also they will usually not work right after removing old ones at that point. Thats why I do them when in there, beyond to obvious fact of already being in that far and close to then to replace when all of the other stuff is already out..

Jamie, I'm certainly not trying to argue, sorry if it seemed that way. The exhaust bellows, from what I've heard, is a real pain to replace unless you remove the bell housing so I can see your points. I've just always had the bellows go and take out the bearing so again, my experience is tainted. Joined 11 Jun Messages 1, I thought the official recommendation from Mercruiser was every other year, that how often I changed mine on my alpha drive on my last boat.

This is assuming the boat is kept in the water, if its on a trailer most of the time then I guess you could get several years out of them. Last edited: 6 Sep Beamishken Member. Joined 24 Dec Messages Location north ayrshire. Every 2 years is the recommendation but in reality much longer is possible only problem I could see in leaving them is if the boat sinks due to a split bellows then it gives the insurance co a get out clause in reality the boat only lets water in slowly due to split bellows as the water has to get through the bearing seals once through the bellows so the boat would only be letting water in slowly so pumps would cope for quite a while I guess it depends how much you want to push your luck I think I change my last set at 4 years.

Joined 1 Apr Messages 8, Location midlands. Beamishken said:.