www.iFourWinns.com

This is great everyone! What an extremely useful posting....you guys will save me $90/hr labor cost around here! With this post and the SELOC manual,
I just may attempt to do this this fall....probably have just 1 or 2 more weekends then it's done around here....dang. went by to darn fast, this summer...

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"For My 50th"
1996 238 Vista
5.7VolvoGL DP
Previous boats; 91 Cobia 19' Cuddy, 87 Starcraft 16' BR,
67 Winner BR, 65 Arrow 14'

My shop charges $63 to R&R the drive, check bellows, lube gimbal, etc. (excluding drive fluid change). If I had the room & time to do it myself I still would, but for that price my back says "write the check." Great pics of the process in this thread though.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Ok this thread with all of the detail and pics is amazing!! And I vote to make it a sticky!!

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Hi guys,

I just dropped in a replacement motor in my 98 Horizon. I had a friend who is a machinist make me the alignment tool, however I'm wondering if there's anything I need to check when doing the alignment, other then if the tool goes in? I sprayed it liberally with WD-40 before inserting through the gimble bearing, and it went in fine first crack! When I pulled the tool back out I noticed the spline marks on the end of the tool that were kind of 'tracks' made by WD-40 and grease from the spline on the motor. They were not however all the way around the shaft, more to one side and not noticeable on the other. Should a guy be checking for uniformity of these tracks to ensure proper alignment? ie, spline marks all the way around, or is that just getting too picky?

I searched a bit for proper alignment instructions, but didn't find any. Which leads me to believe it really is just as simple as "if it goes all the way in, it's good!" ??

Thanks,

C.

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Newbie Boat Owner, Looking to Learn!
1998 Four Winns Horizon RS 180
4.3L OMC/Volvo Penta Outdrive

A friend who is a marine mechanic showed me when we put the engine back in recently, and he said if it is all the way in, and you can twist it with two fingers and thumb, then it is aligned. I wouldn't use WD-40 though, I would use grease. That's what the OMC manual says for the actual shaft of the out drive when reinstalling.

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1988 215 Sundowner 5.7L OMC

Good to know, that makes sense.

Thanks!

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Newbie Boat Owner, Looking to Learn!
1998 Four Winns Horizon RS 180
4.3L OMC/Volvo Penta Outdrive

This is a great post! I wish I would have had something like this to refer to the first time I pulled my drive! Well Done NiagaraChillin!!

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Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

I have the same outdrives as the OP (Volvo Penta Cobra SX) and want to pull mine off the inspect.

I dont see any zerks on the u-joints?? Or am I just not seeing them because of the way the photo was taken?

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Thanks!

Yep, they are there, just can't see them in the pic.

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

Alignment tool. $39.00 on E-Bay. It's the same for VP and Merc.

Awesome. Thread saved me $250 so far. I removed my stbd outdrive yesterday.

I didnt have an extra water input seal so I just put a little dab of grease on the old seal. I kinda feel bad about not replacing it thought. It was pretty flat.

Also, I greased my u-joints and gimbal bearing and am glad I did. They werent dry by any means, but didnt have enough grease to quell my OCD. lol. The guy at the marina down the road sold me a tube of Mercruiser high performance fancy schmancy stuff that he said was better than VP's.

Last, we got hung up on the shift cable - our "barrel" that threads onto the end of the shift cable got corroded or something and was a total bear to get off. We had to hold the shift cable with pliers and fight with the barrel with a pair of needlenose and generous amounts of liquid wrench. I pre-sprayed the port outdrive's shift cable end with liquid wrench just in case that one was corroded too.

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Glad I helped a brother out! If it wasn't for the other guys here on the forum, I probably wouldn't have tried it myself...

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

Thanks again

Today Im taking off the port outdrive. Now that I know what to do, I dont expect it to take me any more than 15 minutes max. I cant believe my marine mechanic wanted $250 EACH outdrive to pull it off, grease it, and throw it back on?!?! This is easy stuff.

Im thinking of starting a side business now haha jk

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Ok so a few additions to this thread.

Things I would add regarding outdrive removal for future peeps:
* Its heavy and awkward. Unless you are really really strong and were born with 4 arms, you are gonna need 2 people to pull it off or at the very least a stand! Make sure you take the props off so that if you drop it or set the outdrive down, you dont dog ear your propeller.

* Dont forget to remove the clip, and barrel on the shift cable end. It wont fit through the hole on the way out, its a tapered hole. Upon reinstallation, some never seize might be a good idea on the threads of the shift cable.

* Its more awkward reinstalling the outdrive. WATCH the shift cable and guide it through its channel on reinstallation- we forgot and bent ours. Fortunately, we bent it back and all was well but we got lucky. You might have to turn the shaft a few times to get the splines to line up with the coupler and you MUST have it at the proper angle or you are going to fight with it for a long time.

* Put a light coating of triple guard grease onto everything inside the transom assembly. That way, if water does ever get in there (bad bellows, etc), maybe it wont corrode right away. Thats just a personal OCD tip from yours truly, you wont find that in any manuals And I put a light coating of triple guard grease on the shift cable too.

Ok a few questions now:

1.) My gimbal bearing on the stbd engine was smooth to move, but had resistance. The port side gimbal was smooth to move, but very easy to move. ??

2.) I had rusty grease come out of one of my u-joints. There were no signs of water intrusion whatsoever. Anybody ever see anything like that?

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1997 Four Winns Vista 278
T - 4.3l EFI
Kohler 4esz Genset
379 hours as of 8/8/21

Yep, about 80lbs of unbalanced akwardness.

Like any bearing, they should be smooth with no to very little resistance or "gritty" feel as you turn them. Did you grease them before turning them?

Hmmm, maybe condensation? Water is sneaky in how it will try to find a way into even the tightest of places. The only way to know for sure is to take it apart and replace the U-Joints.

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