www.iFourWinns.com

Great writeup. I need to check my bellows as the boat is a 2001 and has the original. I checked it carefully last year without pulling the drive and there were no cracks evident.
One question? What creates the seal between the drive and the bracket? The bellows provides the seal between the bracket and the hull but it looks like just metal to metal on the rest.
just curious
Rob

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Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing
2001 Horizon 180

For VP drives, the bellows connects to the drive bracket, or transom shield with a large hose clamp. It connects to the drive with either another hose clamp, or in my case just pressure of the bellows over the aluminum casing.

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

Ok thanks,
So the outdrive portion with the drive shaft slides into the gimbal bearing and the bellows acts as a O-ring to the outdrive. That was the part I was missing. Interesting design.
Take care
Rob

_________________
Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing
2001 Horizon 180

Yes, I thought that was interesting too. Seems the cavity around the upper bellows doesn't matter if it gets wet? The OMC Cobra design used a gasket in this area.

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"Knot Easy" 2000 Horizon 240 Volvo 5.7GS /SX
tow: 2017 Honda PILOT EXL-AWD
prev. boats:
'87 Chaparral 198CXL 4.3 OMC Cobra
'69 Jetstar 16ft Ski Boat, 115hp Yamaha
'68 Aluminum Jon Boat, 3hp Sears
'64 Water Wings

The outdrive end of the bellows is pulled through the tilt housing and locates onto a lip around that hole ( gasket cement used there). The "nose" of the outdrive pushes up against the end of the bellows and compresses the rubber there, forming the seal between the tilt housing and the outdrive.

Nice to see you guys taking on one of the more needed I/O maintenance tasks. It can save you literally thousands vs not doing it when needed. The problem is, since you can't see in there, you never know when the bellows or the input shaft seal is starting to leak. It is just a somewhat awkward job. I built a wooden stand on casters about 8 years ago when I started doing this. At times I till had to put my floor jack under it to get the height just right for it to go on. Then I saw an outdrive jack/stand made by Stumpy's Fab Works. Best thing I ever bought for boat maintenance. It has a trailer tongue jack to lift the drive to the precise height you need. That, and having the alignment tool, has allowed me to get the drive back on in literally 15 min instead of fighting with it (sometimes) for an hour. If you want to do this AND save your back, buy one of those....well worth it.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II