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Driveshaft bellows inspection alpha 1 gen 2

M

Mark S.

Regular Contributor
With drive trimmed up and looking from the bottom up and side to side, do they tend to break more on the ^ crease or the V crease? Where would be the telltale place to look?
 
Mark S. said:
With drive trimmed up and looking from the bottom up and side to side, do they tend to break more on the ^ crease or the V crease? Where would be the telltale place to look?
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It can be either. My driveshaft bellows were getting chaffed on the sides where it rubs on the gimbal ring and or the drive hinge pins. there was rubbing on the outer edges due to bellows getting stiff over time. These were 18 years old still not leaking but clearly getting to the end of their life.
 
Mark S. said:
With drive trimmed up and looking from the bottom up and side to side, do they tend to break more on the ^ crease or the V crease? Where would be the telltale place to look?
Click to expand...
Ayuh,..... Pull the drive, 'n inspect both inside, 'n outside,....
 
My exhaust bellows gave way two seasons ago. I removed it and installed the tube, easy job. Both driveshaft and exhaust bellows are/were now 18 years old. Stored indoors for most of it and always with drive lowered. With drive pulled I do not see any visible signs of cracks or anything that would make me think it's near failure although I'm very aware its past it's lifespan. I'll be retired after this season and would like to DIY the job when I have time to mess with it. Just trying to convince myself I can play Russian roulette with one more season. If I do it now it will be a shop job and I'm figuring shift cable, trim pucks, bellows, water and oil tubes will be $1000 (gimbal bearing serviceable and very smooth so not replacing). If I wait probably $400 plus learning experience. I've been considering selling the boat for a few seasons, that's why I've waited. Now thinking I need to be retired first to see if that's the right move. I might keep it.
 
Mark S. said:
My exhaust bellows gave way two seasons ago. I removed it and installed the tube, easy job. Both driveshaft and exhaust bellows are/were now 18 years old. Stored indoors for most of it and always with drive lowered. With drive pulled I do not see any visible signs of cracks or anything that would make me think it's near failure although I'm very aware its past it's lifespan. I'll be retired after this season and would like to DIY the job when I have time to mess with it. Just trying to convince myself I can play Russian roulette with one more season. If I do it now it will be a shop job and I'm figuring shift cable, trim pucks, bellows, water and oil tubes will be $1000 (gimbal bearing serviceable and very smooth so not replacing). If I wait probably $400 plus learning experience. I've been considering selling the boat for a few seasons, that's why I've waited. Now thinking I need to be retired first to see if that's the right move. I might keep it.
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You could put some water in the bellows (not too high) and manually raise/lower the gimbal, to see if it leaks. OTOH, if you have the drive removed, going by your use of 'I do not see", this would be the time to replace whatever seems to be at its limit.
 
Mark S. said:
My exhaust bellows gave way two seasons ago. I removed it and installed the tube, easy job. Both driveshaft and exhaust bellows are/were now 18 years old. Stored indoors for most of it and always with drive lowered. With drive pulled I do not see any visible signs of cracks or anything that would make me think it's near failure although I'm very aware its past it's lifespan. I'll be retired after this season and would like to DIY the job when I have time to mess with it. Just trying to convince myself I can play Russian roulette with one more season. If I do it now it will be a shop job and I'm figuring shift cable, trim pucks, bellows, water and oil tubes will be $1000 (gimbal bearing serviceable and very smooth so not replacing). If I wait probably $400 plus learning experience. I've been considering selling the boat for a few seasons, that's why I've waited. Now thinking I need to be retired first to see if that's the right move. I might keep it.
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I went through same exercise. if they look good and you dont see too much chaffing at edges and small splitting your are probably fine for a season. The thing I noticed was the old ones were much stiffer than the new ones which I think is why the outside edge gets abraded. In the end I could have gone a another year or two, but I was/am planning on keeping the boat for another 8-10 years, so I did it when convenient.

Use OEM pucks as the seirra ones I put on the trim never could get to adjust right. Kicking myself for not getting the oem ones
 
With bellows what happens is the rubber gets stiff & dried out & if you look closely you start to see small cracks forming in between the folds. That’s when for sure you should replace it. I have had them go 8-10 years….if stored in the down position…
 
louc said:
With bellows what happens is the rubber gets stiff & dried out & if you look closely you start to see small cracks forming in between the folds. That’s when for sure you should replace it. I have had them go 8-10 years….if stored in the down position…
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Unless the upper GC oil seal leaks and in that case, the gear oil will attack the rubber and make it feel like Silicone rubber, not firm like it should be. Mine was like that and I couldn't figure out why until I had run it on the water, tilted the drive up to trailer it home and saw gear oil drooling out & had the chance to diassemble it. The bellows in my boat were probably original and it was made in 1984, so far overdue. The service interval was forced by the two previous owners' neglect and from experience, I would recommend looking more closely in all areas of a used boat (or have a Marine Survey done) because there's no guarantee that the info from the seller will be accurate unless, maybe, they provide all service history.
 
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