"U-Joint" Bellows

[Mac Attack]

Noticed mine in bad. Is this is difficult job? I am pretty mechanical and have a garage full of tools. Maybe I just need to jump in head first???


Thanks

Mike

[NoSlack]

You need to pull the upper gear box off the outdrive or pull the whole drive off the boat to change that bellows. Definitely not a 5 minute job, but it can be done at home with a minimal amount of tools.

Mike

[Mac Attack]

You need to pull the upper gear box off the outdrive or pull the whole drive off the boat to change that bellows. Definitely not a 5 minute job, but it can be done at home with a minimal amount of tools.

Mike


OK, I am diving in head first. Hopefully I can just remove the upper gear box. The outdrive was replaced by Yale and has very few hours. Any last minute tips?????




Mike

[NoSlack]

Drain some oil out, a quart should be enough. You need to remove the helmet nut and roll the helmet up out of the way. Take the shift cover off and remove the two bolts holding the aft end of the gear box and the two 9/16 nuts off the sides. Once you get those four hold down bolts/nuts off and loosen the aft hose clamp for that bellows, the upper gear box should lift off.

When you go back together, hold the gear box in one hand and the U-joint spline shaft with the other. You need to the reach inside the bellows and guild the spline shaft on the engine stub shaft. This is the hardest part of the job, working blind to mate the shaft and spline back together. Once it mates, set the upper gear box back in place, you may need to rotate the prop to get things to line up.

Between the upper gear box and intermediate housing you will have a couple shim rings on the bearing. They should stay in the hole of the intermediate housing but you need to keep an eye out for them and make sure they go back in the hole before you re-assemble.

Mike

[Mac Attack]

Drain some oil out, a quart should be enough. You need to remove the helmet nut and roll the helmet up out of the way. Take the shift cover off and remove the two bolts holding the aft end of the gear box and the two 9/16 nuts off the sides. Once you get those four hold down bolts/nuts off and loosen the aft hose clamp for that bellows, the upper gear box should lift off.

When you go back together, hold the gear box in one hand and the U-joint spline shaft with the other. You need to the reach inside the bellows and guild the spline shaft on the engine stub shaft. This is the hardest part of the job, working blind to mate the shaft and spline back together. Once it mates, set the upper gear box back in place, you may need to rotate the prop to get things to line up.

Between the upper gear box and intermediate housing you will have a couple shim rings on the bearing. They should stay in the hole of the intermediate housing but you need to keep an eye out for them and make sure they go back in the hole before you re-assemble.

Mike

Thanks Mike:

I removed the two bolts from the helmet nut does it spin off? threaded? everthing else is good.

[NoSlack]

If your helmet nut has two more holes in it, use a 1/4-20 bolt in them as jacking screws. If it only has the two hole you took the bolts out of, I jam a couple allan wrenches in the hole and rock the nut back and forth to work it out.

Mike

[yellowfin1]

Man,

You cannot get that kind of good mechanical advise anywhere (except here with Mike).

[Mac Attack]

Thanks Mike:

I removed the two bolts from the helmet nut does it spin off? threaded? everthing else is good.



U-Joints are a rusty mess will not slide off. Now What!!!!!!!

[DOGHOUSE26]

Imagine the U Joints as your girlfriend who just hinted she was pregnant. Since you're married, go to the workbench and get a hammer, you know what you have to do! :eek:

[Mac Attack]

Imagine the U Joints as your girlfriend who just hinted she was pregnant. Since you're married, go to the workbench and get a hammer, you know what you have to do! :eek:

Beat those things like a red-headed step-child. No luck. tomorrow bring on the heat. should just slide off correct?? All I see is dollar bills in my head.


mike

[Knot Now]

I had the same problem.
I removed the entire shaft.
Cut the bellows off.
There is a snap ring inside that holds the bearing and two plastic shims/retainers. If you get the snap ring off (about 1 1/2 to 2") the shaft should pull out IIRC. My bearing was also bad from the water leaking in the bellows. I could not find an exploded view. It was still hard to get the shaft off the u-joint.

Phil

[Mac Attack]

I had to heat them up with a torch and finally it slid off. Soaked the u-joints in liquid wrench and beat the bejeezus out of them. Had to take the die-grinder with a cut off wheel to remove them. I will now check them anually when I change the drive oil.


Mike

[Malu Lani]

I have my bellow replaced and u joint checked every year .

[Mac Attack]

The Volvo dealer tells me to be sure and lube the primary shaft thru the zerk fitting on the bellhousing. I found the zerk on top that lubes the helmut shield, is there another on a DP-E ???? Says the bearing on the primary shaft is more than likely shot due to the fact I had to heat up the U-Joints to remove them. It's all back together, but I can remove it now that I've done it before. Thanks for all the input, you were right, it's not that big of a deal. I will now include this in my yearly maintenance check.

Mike

[Pez Espada]

Mike,

I am right behind you with the need to change out the bellows and u-joint on my outdrive. I've been following your progress and was wondering were you got your U-joint and bellows parts from.

Thanks in advance, Zack

[Mac Attack]

Zack:

I went with www.marinepartsexpress.com to get my volvo parts. They seemed to be the cheapest around. Mike aka "No Slack" listed the Napa part # for the U-joints, Part # 210-1306.. I went with genuine volvo 5 times the price however.
good luck, it's really not that big of a job.


Mike

[Knot Now]

I do think you need to change the bearing!

I cannot say for sure about the DP-E, I have a DP-D1 and it does NOT have a zerk fitting, they changed the bearing to a sealed bearing. It was a "6206 2RS" IIRC.
As I stated in a previous post, I had to replace mine because of a bellows leak. It’s pretty easy once you get the drive off. There is an external snap ring that holds a plastic spacer, then the bearing. IIRC,there was an internal snap ring that held the bearing on the shaft.

I would dry lube or anti-seize the shaft splines (both ends).

Hope this helps

[Pez Espada]

Thanks mike,

I installed a new 290 dp in my last boat but have not changed the u-joints before. Do I need to remove the entire drive or can I just pull the upper unit off and if so, will I need to replace any seals between the upper and lower unit.

Thanks, Zack

[Mac Attack]

I removed the uppper gear box. There are a couple of O-Rings that I replaced. Did not look like they needed to be but I chaged them out.

Volvo part # 925259 1ea.

" " #125017 2ea.

This is for my DP-E



Mike

[Pez Espada]

Thanks Mike,

It sounds pretty straight forward. I do have a few more questions and was wondering if you could call me or if you could email me your phone number. I want to make sure I don't screw this thing up as these outdrives can get expensive.

Thanks, Zack 805-302-3330