Volvo Penta SX Bellows and Gimbal Bearing Replacement - Correct Alignment tools are needed 

I had the exact same problem and know why you were having a problem getting it to go in the last couple inches. You have to remove the zinc on the back of the drive! I spent almost an entire day struggling with the same exact issue. Pulled the zinc off and went on in minutes. Hopefully this helps someone else hitting the same sticking point. When the zinc is on, there is zero wiggle room when you get to the point where you’re just about to get on the bolts but when it’s removed you won’t get hung up nearly as bad (assuming bearing is aligned properly etc)

Your Video was by far the best out there for exposing the bellows and doing this job,. A+ And the praise you gave your daughter "Baby Girl" was priceless!! It's obvious you are a very good person, Dad and instructor. I feel so much more comfortable doing this job. Thank-You.

I'm glad another guy has the same philosophy about the specialty tools. I have done too many jobs with this level of frustration (not stopping to eat all day trying to get it done), because of this philosophy. You've just convinced me to break my usual protocol and buy the alignment tool -even though I am selling the boat and it is a one time thing. I'm sure it will improve and extend my life! I just pulled the out-drive off yesterday. It's obviously the first time it's been off in 27 years. Even removing the seized shaft that the rams attach to took me an hour. It didn't glide out. So, I see where this going. It will be a brawl without the alignment tool. You are far more patient than I am. Pretty sure low blood glucose and a beer would have had the 9 lb sledge out. Pretty clever work around though pulsing the engine. Thanks for letting us know what is involved in the job. Much appreciated. The guy I bought the boat off of was great at polishing, but the more difficult maintenance such as this was never done unfortunately.

You’re the DYI father and daughter champ. Way to go, getting the little ones to help. That’s what family is all about. Somethings required more attention than others, great job not giving up. God bless you all.

Im very glad that you didn't skip the hard part this the kind of video we need. Previous comment says remove the fwd zinc plate. Thats where im at now. Cross your fingers

thanks for the video buddy. I suggest you buy an engine alignment tool. The engine moves over time so you need to re-adjust the engine mounts so it's perfectly straight. It makes putting the driveshaft back in much easier.

A few suggestions having done it myself on my '88 OMC Cobra.... 1) WD 40 is not really a penetrating oil, you will have much better luck with Kano Kroil, Freeze-Off or PB Blaster 2) pick up a can or 2 of OMC/Evinrude gasket sealer, you should use it on all the bolts for the outdrive, it will prevent seizing up due to corrosion. 3) get a tube of OMC/Evinrude Triple guard grease coat the orings with this stuff and also you should coat the splines for the driveshaft with it...No grease on the O-rings on the driveshaft, only motor oil also, coat the mating surfaces of the drive and the pivot housing with the triple guard, it will prevent alu corrosion from locking it together 4) you MUST use an alignment tool, Sierra makes one and they are all over e-bay, without it this job is a major pain 5) for lining up the drive and sliding it on, I use a very thin long screwdriver that will pass thru the u joints, then I can spin the d/s just a bit, to make the splines line up in the coupler.... Every year you should pull the drive to check the bellows for water. I have found that the OE Cobra/SX bellows will last 10 years, if you can store the boat with the drive down. Sometimes this job goes easy sometimes it fights you.... 15+ years of salt water maintenance... I use a drive jack like the shops have....when you're over a certain age, will save your back.

This is incredibly spot on. I had the exact same problem. I struggled for hours and hours trying to get the shaft to fit through the bearing. I took the bearing out 3 times to sanity check that it would fit. Turning the motor over combined with the ratchet straps did the trick. Thank you!

also another tip for getting the drive back on... 1) use a drive jack to keep the drive straight and level, start with the Pivot Housing straight up and down... 2) get the longest and skinniest screwdriver you can find. stick it through the ujoints so you can just slightly spin the driveshaft. Then as you guide the driveshaft in, use the screwdriver to carefully line up the splines of the driveshaft with the splines in the coupler. This is how it can get hung up, the splines may not mate up, so if you can turn the driveshaft a tiny bit it will slip right in. I've done this a few times on my OMC Cobra when it fought me and it is a good trick to know...

Wonderful video however you need to use the engine alignment tool everytime. The wood piece with tape he used is flimsy and won't be able to help him realign his engine on the mounts. Even though the bearing seems aligned visually there are minor differences in alignment that prevents a nice fit. You need to realign the engine to the bearing everytime. That is why he needed to force it on that way. This might lead to premature wear and/or failure. Otherwise I applaud him for doing this big job and documenting the whole project on video.

You can see the distance between the bottom bolts and the angle isn't correct. Still an absolute great video. Glad you got it going again.

when you installed the brg. you need to get a alignment bar in there and square the brg hit at 12-6-3-9 oclock and make sure the engine is aligned also that drive will just go on like butter if the brg is not squared to the coupler then the shaft is not going to go in straight. just make the gimble housing alignment right and you will not fight it ps if you use grease on the 2 orings of the input shaft you can get a hydraulic lock when the input shaft comes into the brg. use light oil it happens on sx and cobra drives is because they have a real tight seal right behind the brg. compared mercrusier i have been working on these since the early 80 s drives go on hard because somthing is not right alls you got to do is make it right a for your effort on taking on the task that most people would not even try

I just bought my gimbal bearing and will try to install it next weekend. Thanks for showing all the issues and ideas to get this assembled. Also there have been great informative comments as well. I will add additional comments to your video if I learn anything new during my install.

Unbelievable,,,you got it...its not a job for just anyone...need some tools for sure...im just looking at videos right now,,just to find out How to inspect these bellows without having to open it up.. A big pat on the back from me buddy...thumbs up to you too little girl...perfect home videos with all the b.s. involved just what to except working on it....not a winter time project outside in montana

Great video!! I love watching when people show a struggle and how they overcome it and especially when they use their own ingenuity instead of buying the 300$ tool. And to be clear I'm not against buying the right tools either but I enjoy the show either way nonetheless. Thank you sir!

Excellent video. Very smart helper you had at the end also. Thanks.

Dam I’ve been there, this job can make you crazy, thanks for posting

I did this same job a while back and bought the 40$ alignment rod, come back from college and my parents had thrown it in the trash!!! Even with the rod I had the SAME issue getting it to seat at the end

Hi Buck. I feel your pain. I have the DPS-A drive which is very similar but in some ways even worse to work on.

Thanks for making this video. I'm starting my bellows and bearing replacement project this weekend and will be using this as a reference. Thanks again.

why would anyone thumbs down this , he's just trying to help the average dude work on their on shit. I dont even have this problem, just seen it in my feed and thought....man...I dont want to do this. Hhahaha thanks for posting bud!

Man im glad you did this vid. I had the exact same issue, after 3 hrs of cussing and hammering i was starting to think i was stupid. I had to do this when swapping my engine so i was sure it was a motor alignment issue. I must have done about 100 in and outs of the boat before it went together. Turns out this is normal omc install...humm who would have thought that...friggin engineers!

Wow, what a pain reinstalling the outdrive. Good video

I commend your efforts! Any handy man, do it yourself'r has been thru something like this

oh and you MUST use an alignment tool!

The alignment tool is used to make sure that the engine and transome bearing is aligned properly so the shaft will fit whit no binding, if needed you will have to change or adjust the engine forward mounts to make it slide in whit no effort. an old straight shaft is a perfect tool to use unless you want to invest in a special tool.

Good video, I am going to do this on my Chris Craft 21 concept. I hear a little noise in that area.

you should have taken some emery cloth to the shaft and clean it up. the 2 flat O rings on the shaft should have been replaced too.

Thank you for a very helpful video👍

Most likely, the inner ring of the new gimbal bearing was not parallel to the outer ring. Always look out for that before installing the new gimbal bearing and than again after it has been inserted. Correct, if necessary, with a proper alignment tool.

PS if there was grease in the grooves for those o rings on the drive shaft, that can cause your problem...NO grease there only motor oil....grease, only on the splines.....

You need alignment bar to set the gimbal bearing

It looks like your gimbal bearing was getting caught up on those old nasty flat o-rings that typically come with a kit that includes the bellows and gimbal bearings. Those need to be replaced as well. I went ahead and purchased the cheapest alignment tool I could find on ebay. Not only does it help with the process but it is great for home defense purposes as well.

Great video, but with all due respect i think you missunderstood what the 'alignament' is. The tool you made does not serve any scope as the tape is soft exactly where it should be hard and precise. The result of this missalignament is the result where you cannot reinsert the shaft... the tool does the job and aligns the inside of the bearing with the engine coupler so the shaft goes smooth through both of them.

I have the same problem! I can not get mine splined at all!! I don’t know what to do! I have the alignment tool and it looks like it is aligned perfectly from what I can tell!

Lessons learned.

wow that was painful to watch....so its been a year....how many hours and how's your coupler?

all hands on deck 👍👍👍👍👍

Thanks for posting this man!!!

Cool video, good info. 🤙🏻 Figured it was out of alignment. So, What’s Cobra SX alignment tool part number anyone?

Nice job and great video!

If you had the correct alignment tool, how would you have gotten it any closer that it was? I mean could you even measure or visually see what would be off?

I see someone used the trim to pull the drive in

Shaft seal is a must.

Very helpful!

I think you should have changed the oil seal behind the gimbal bearing too

Did you not replace the oil seal?

So the U joint bellows just "glues" to the pivot housing? I realize the "front" end of the bellows has a clamp but the pivot housing end of the u joint bellows has no clamp?

Nice Video. I need some help, i got the leg off 100%, when i took the pin out for the trim rams, one ram compressed and the other lengthened. I felt to see if i could push and pull and they seem solid, Why has this happened? How do i get them free to move to line them up? Thanks

Holy Shit, Please do not install your drive like this. If your drive wont slid into place the engine alignment is off. If you force it your gimbal bearing will be shot in 100 hours

Heavy z drive removal / installation is due to wrong motor alignment. If the engine is out of alignment you will kill the engine coupler - I damaged it in this way.

I'm pretty sure the problem was that the engine and drive were not in line. To get the right line, look at this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OjPHcl0y8zM.html and part 2 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HGQ0d111dLw.html

Donkey kick. Works every time

Hey man how did you know if the gimble was seized up? Because the wouldn’t turn over?

Why didn't you do the grease seal too? Is it not necessary? I'm about to do mine,

next episode impeller another bearing driveshaft and worn pilot on flywheel lol been there done that

Why not replace the seal at same time

Hi! What is the brand or name of the sealing paste? Thank you very much!

Hey man what did you use to get the bellow into the lip on the pivot housing? I had a time getting mine on but an hr into it I finally got it. There has to be a better way lol

Nose of the stern drive bouncing on the end of the new bellows...

What year is your motor? I looked In comments

What’s the lower pivot (turn) bearing called on this drive? Thanks

How do you disconect the shit cable?

Just curious how much would this cost at a shop?

What does the gimbal bearing do

Need not to say, that if not properly aligned, you will ruin both your new transom bearing, your shaft and or your crankshaft bearings

probably needs an engine alignment

Not buying the alignment tool is engaging in petty economics! They are far cheaper than the four plus hours of your life that's wasted trying to force the leg home. The tool has value beyond just alignment of the gimbal bearing but also the engine itself. If the engine is out of alignment you will kill the engine coupler! After you pay for a new one and possibly a tow bill to get off the water you will likely wish you had spent a few bucks on the right tool. But I'm just an old man who has spent thirty years on the water and working with the machinery involved so what do I know?!

Terrible video. You need to look at the OMC manual because this is not the way you install a sterndrive.

Highly recommend replacing the shaft seal ($15) on the motor side of the gimbal before reinstalling a new gimbal.

Cool video, good info. 🤙🏻 Figured it was out of alignment. So, What’s Cobra SX alignment tool part number anyone?