First trip of season ...oh dear !

[antlouhay]

well then the gimble bearing is fixed... prop shaft carrier replace, new manifolds , risers elbows both sides,......... and guess what ???
transom shield corroded and failing .... letting in water ... the reason for the failing gimble bearing!
so now even more expense, boat out, engine out ..... not a cheap year

[mlines]

Sorry to hear this, however it does look as if the engineers let you down in diagnosis and just kept changing parts without working out the problem. Do you have any come back on them?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Matt13]

Blimey Anton sorry to hear about this if your boat is out of action for a while and you need a fix let me know and you can come out on mine.

[Ianfs]

transom shield corroded and failing .... letting in water ... the reason for the failing gimble bearing!

Transom Shield or Gimbal Housing? Transom Shield inside/Gimbal Housing outside!

The reason I'm asking is maybe I can offer an alternative to replacement if its the Gimbal Housing which has corroded around the Gimbal Bearing. I had a bellows leak a while back, it was a tiny pin hole which would enlarge when the leg was up but almost close when it was down. It was there for a while and only letting in small amounts of sea water at a time which eventually evaporated when she was not being used. On inspection it didn't really notice until one day I changed the bellows after hearing the Gimbal Bearing rumbling away and it pulled some of the Housing away with it. I then learned that Aluminium rots from the inside out, different from steel which corrodes outside in.

I looked at these......
http://www.ghrkits.com/

It's a quick cheap fix, but I figured the resin used to bond the bellows would not come off, consequently you wouldn't be able to ever change the bellows again.

I then found this guy, but not sure if he does Bravo assemblies.....

http://www.ebay.com/usr/mr.mike.mercruiser

He did have his own website but I think he uses Ebay now. Anyhow , he seems like a really nice bloke and I nearly bought one from him until I found a welder locally who agreed to have a go.

This is what it was like.....................

Gimbal Housing Pic for e-mail 1.jpg (163.82 KiB) Viewed 10234 times

Gimbal Housing side view small 1.jpg (155.6 KiB) Viewed 10233 times

This is the weld.....

Picture 186.jpg (261.08 KiB) Viewed 10234 times

And here it is nearly cleaned up

Nearly finished from below right.jpg (222.94 KiB) Viewed 10233 times

It was just a thought that might save you a bit of cash if it is this housing and I have to admit its not a great solution but it is a permanent fix rather than just a bodge repair.

Hope this might help.

[Ianfs]

Any updates Anton? Are you in the water yet.?

[mlines]

For those of you (like us) who were seriously worried by the manifold element of this, you might like this following information.

We have a trailer boat that uses both the sea and freshwater with it being stored on the trailer in-between times. Therefore the manifold life is a bit indeterminate somewhere between the Mercruiser "pessimistic" estimate and the fresh water "they last forever" assessment. A manifold change on the off chance of failure is expensive and, of course, a failure is also expensive.

Therefore we have requested a manifold check on our next service. The effort charge for this is less than £50 for the removal of the risers etc and an internal inspection using a borescope camera. The key cost for this is the parts with 4 gaskets @ £39 each being required but this is boat specific, driving the cost to £200.

This seems a good price for an element of peace of mind compared to the replacement/failure cost.

Just thought people would like to know a ballpark cost of inspection, your costs would vary depending on boat/engine/gasket types.