18' classic needing driveshaft bellows

[soloma]

Hi first of all 1st post with many more to come hopefully!! looking at buying my first Donzi and its needing drive shaft bellows...is this a hard thing to do...i realize hard is a relative term...i am mechanically inclined and just wondering if there was a "how to" or something along those lines...boat has merc out-drive!
thanks in advance

[silverghost]

The bigger question might be~~~
Did any water, or worse yet saltwater, get in the bellows and cause any rust & bearing damage ?

Others here will tell you how to replace the bellows.
You can also buy a service manual.

[joseph m. hahnl]

It's a little tough to do but not impossible . Hard part is getting everything apart ,if it was a salt water boat. I would recommend doing the whole Kit and caboodle.Gimbal bearing ,water tube, shift bellows, exhaust bellows, and gimbal bellows. possibly the shift cable, the trim limit and sender wires if they look to be in bad shape. If your already there, you might as well do it. The after market kits are some what in expensive, and the last thing you want to do is have to go in there again, as some of the stuff can not be done with the gimbal bellows in place. The only thing I ran into was the exhaust bellows has to be crimped with a special tool.But with through the hull and an exhaust block off plate . It was recommended by a few here, for me to just eliminate it .

Some of the tools you would need , is a slide hammer to remove the gimbal bearing, an alignment tool to re align the bearing to the coupler , and a necked down extra deep socket for the shift cable should you choose to replace it. If you need to do the exhaust bellows you could have it crimped by you local boat store.

[gcarter]

If you invest about $25.00 in a manual that you can buy from any
Merc dealer, read it through two or three times, you'll find it's pretty easy, not real easy, but very do-able.
Besides the bellows, clamps, adhesive and various O-rings, go ahead and change the gimal earing.
Good luck and welcome aboard.

I can't stress enough how important it is to have a manual. It'll answer nearly all your questions, and help solve your problems.

[mattyboy]

man those crazy Swedes a bellows replacement on an AQ takes an allen key and a screwdriver and the only time you need to put your beer down is too slide the drive off and on.

loving my 40 year old volvo

[mattyboy]

sorry and a couple of open end wrenches