Replace Mercruiser alpha outdrive Shift Cable

foreign [Music] Channel hey thanks for watching we are working on our alpha one gen One outdrive engine and we've got an inboard as well and we're going to replace the entire shift cable in today's project let's get started DIY is here we are back at the Craftsman workstation and we have been busy on the left-hand side you can see our outdrive fully rebuilt both upper and lower and everything in between let's take a closer look and we are referencing our exact outdraft serial number surface manual and honestly it's the only way to go to ensure that you are buying the exact replacement parts and you're putting everything back together per the factory specifications though we've got the schematic setup is where I'm standing right now is closest to the outdrive and propeller as we move inward that is the transom assembly that attaches to the rear Hull portion of the boat from here let's head out the boat and get started DIY is outside of the boat this is a 1989 glass pour let's head to the back and get started to the back of the boat and as you can see our outdrive has been removed scrolling above right now is a video link that will show you the removal steps of our exact alpha one gen One outdrive coming a little closer inside there is the U-joint Bellows and all the way inside is your gimbal bearing behind that the seal and then inside your engine coupler however here is our shift cable here right there and here's our shift lever and we're going to replace this next direct your attention to the shift cable slide and the way this works is that little tab right there on the bottom will actually slide in and as you move the shift cable in between gears from forward to neutral to reverse back to neutral and so on it moves this entire slide and shift lever which feeds all the way down here and on the bottom side you have the slot that the shifter which is installed on your upper unit slides back into when you're putting the out drive back onto the housing and what I'm going to do is I'm going to remove this first as well as loosen up the shift cable nut inside there and I'm doing that now because everything is still firmly tight and secured if I wait to do this later after removing the hinge pins and more this entire bell housing will be very loose and it might be a little trickier to loosen and remove that nut to a better close-up and before I start removing this shift cable slide I'm going to spray that internal nut with PB Blaster and let that soak next to the outermost portion of your shift cable slide and you will see that it is secured on by safety wire and DIY is I highly recommend taking as many photos as possible of this entire portion here to ensure when it comes time to putting everything back together you wrap that safety wire the proper way as shown I'll reposition the camera and start removing the safety wire and all I'm using is a pair of needle nose pliers as shown here and again pictures are very important prior to removing this or undoing the safety wire see the two parts are now separated and you can still use the pliers or you can use your hand whatever easier once you have the safety wire all unwrapped it goes through a tiny hole in the threaded stud that sticks out of the slide and just be patient and careful as you remove this you don't want to do too much tugging and damage anything Upstream that would not be good grab it with some pliers and just carefully feed it through the hole as shown here and there it is next all I'm doing is grabbing a pick tool and cleaning the inner portion of this threaded stud here and we need to go grab an allen key and unscrew that I found the proper size Allen key it's basically trial and error until you get the right size I'm going to spray a little bit of PB Blaster on that and let that soak now to a close-up of how I have this configured I have an adjustable wrench and I'm not going to allow it to touch that threaded stud the last thing I want to do is damage that thread or the stud itself and I secured it to the slide and it's been about 20 minutes for that PB Blaster to eat away at any rust and I'm going to begin unscrewing that again not allowing the adjustable wrench to make contact with the threaded stud or thread and it's got a good grip on the slide and I'm going to loosen this we go and I'm trying to give you a good camera view of this all I'm doing is holding the slide in place with the adjustable wrench and using the Allen key to unscrew that threaded portion from the slide as shown here I'll remove the adjustable wrench at this point this entire part is able to slide back and forth and the cable itself has a stopping point which alleviates this slide from being able to come off and that is by Design to assist in the operation of the actual shift cable when everything's put back together however from here I'll shift that in and we need to head inside the boat where the inboard engine is and remove some parts up top I have now uncovered the boat all the way up to the driver's seat or Captain seat we need to position the throttle lever or shift lever to the neutral position and that is going to alleviate tension on the shift cable above the engine it is currently in forward because we remove the app Drive now it's a neutral here's a view of the tap engine as we shift this into neutral now to a close-up this will be the cable we are going to remove you have a counter pin right here and on the back side or base portion of the cutter pin you will notice it is bent and we will use pliers to bend this portion flush with the other end and pull it through in addition we have a 7 16 nut we will remove that and I'm doing my best to give you a good camera view of this there's the cotter pin do your best not to drop that inside the engine next the 7 16 nut and below the nut is a washer set those aside from here we can pull this entire cable out of the housing as well as this stud and pull it up in an even manner because if you pull it up Offset you could damage either the stud or the housing and just like that from here we need to remove this end plastic piece and to do so you have two set screws that are square shaped one on each side we need to loosen those and in most cases most people don't have a wrench that small so grab a pair of pliers carefully grip the set screw as shown here and loosen it and that one's loose we'll come to the opposite side go ahead and set the pliers aside and this plastic end piece should slide right off just like that next you have a jam nut right here and if you loosen it by hand which surprisingly we could go ahead and loosen that up if you can't loosen it by hand I believe this is a 10 or 11 inch nut and as you loosen this grab a hold of this portion right here of the cable housing with a pair of pliers next what we'll do is unscrew this threaded shaft from the housing quick update diy-ers this portion right here that has the thread on it and this barrel and the jam nut it is supposed to loosen from this housing in a friendly manner however due to the age of mine it is seized rusted or corroded in place and it is not budging which is fine we're just going to leave it on because the new cable comes with not only the housing but all the parts including this Rod or shaft with the thread on it barrel and jamna we're going to go back down to the Bellow housing and pull the cable all the way out back down to the bell housing and again to the shift cable slide and real quick a tip you do not actually have to remove the safety wire if you do not plan on using this old slide with the brand new cable that you buy however in most cases when you buy the cable it comes with a brand new slide so you might as well use the new one however if you don't want to you'll have to remove the safety wire and follow the previous steps and pull the cable all the way out and remove this slide to use on the new cable however again here's the stopping point shown here we are just going to carefully continue to pull the entire cable out you can see the plastic housing that feeds all the way into the internet and again just pull the entire cable out and at the tail end you'll notice it gave me a little trouble and that is because the very end portion of the shift cable where those set screws screwed into and grabbed a hold of there's a slight Bend to it so it's not perfectly round so as it slides in through the boot and this plastic housing just be aware it might give you a little trouble and again to the side that has the slide on it go ahead and slide this all the way down the cable and you can remove it from the entire cable and use it on your new cable again that's if you want to in most cases the new cable comes with a new slide there it is removed now to view with the sliding cable removed and two things prior to moving on this screw right here inside this washer I do not want to lose that I'm going to tape that to the washer and I want to show you something up top back to the engine and the opposite end of the shift cable I re-secured not only the washer but the nut on that threaded stud that secures the shift cable in place and I'm just carefully resting it in the housing or slot in addition not sure if it will be helpful but the shift cable housing goes all the way down here and feeds to the bottom portion and you can see where it goes through the home and through the transom gimmel ring and bell housing and is secured to that slide that we just removed from the old cable screw is now taped to the washer next some people don't but most people do I highly recommend purchasing this tool or socket and down below in the comments section as well as description section is a link on where to purchase this it is specifically designed to remove that inner nut that secures this plastic housing in place in the bell housing and the base of it is a three-quarters inch where you hook up a three quarters inch socket so we will slide this all the way on as shown here and align it with the nut inside the bell housing and we'll use our three quarters inch socket tube again loosen it and then we'll tighten it back up apply some friendly inward pressure to keep that tool on the internet foreign is now loose and I'm going to leave it as is I'm not going to loosen it any further nor am I going to tighten it back in and again the whole purpose of doing this now rather than later is because the entire bell housing is firmly secured to the gimbal ring and transom making it easier to remove that nut because in most cases it's going to be pretty rusted and corroded and not that friendly to loosen all right DIYs hey a quick break in the action some people move forward with only replacing the shift cable and housing from here without removing the bell housing as well as your Bellows which include your exhaust Bellow your U-joint Bellow your internal water tube and your shift cable Bellow and for all of you alpha one gen 2 as well as Bravo owners you've got that extra oil line on the right hand side within very close proximity of your shift cable Bellow however we are choosing not to perform this project that way because we want to replace all of our Bellows and with that said in order to streamline or Focus this video more toward the shift cable itself and housing replacement we are going to show additional steps that will be required in our mission for this project project however if you choose not to do that and move forward with the approach of replacing your shift cable and housing without removing the bell housing and Bellows we will talk more about that as this video goes on so stay tuned we'll cover the steps that we will be doing and again as we go on we'll have a couple additional breaking the actions like this to cover in more detail how you would replace the shift cable and housing without removing your bellhousing and Bellows so with that said let's get back to the video now it's time to direct our attention to the starboard side we are going to remove the trim Center and two foot screws one on top one on bottom and again Phillips screwdriver and as I mentioned earlier if your screws are on there tight and not budging go ahead and carefully tap the base of your screwdriver with a hammer as you simultaneously loosen the screw and in our case ours are loose and again take photos prior to removing your trim Center and limit switch from here you can carefully remove your trim sender and the back side is very greasy just be careful as you shift this down and out of the way and inside here is your hinge pin a clean away all that grease to give you a better view of it to a close-up of the hinge pin and you've got one on the starboard side as well as the port side and there is a specific tool designed to remove your hinge pins we'll show you that now and DIYs here it is double in the comment section as well as description section is a link to purchase this this is a must-have tool when removing your hinge pins and as you can see one side has a machine spline cut to it to perfectly match your hinge pins and on the opposite side is a half inch stud for a half inch socket and carefully align the hinge pin tool inside the hinge pin without cross threading or damaging the spline and from the manufacturer these hinge pins are secured with Loctite so kind of expect them to be a little unfriendly and tough to loosen and remove we will now secure the half inch socket and long breaker bar onto the tool and I'll give it a couple good Taps just to ensure that the spline portion of the tool is all the way inside the hinge pin and from here I will loosen it and in our case not bad go slow no need to rush this once you listen it to a point where the hinge pin itself is sticking out of the gimbal ring about a quarter inch you can transition to the ratchet and socket and there is the starboard side hinge pin right there check that out to a close-up of the inner thread or portion where the hinge pin secures into now to the port side we will remove the trim limit switch and port side hinge pin port side now and diy-ers here's our limit switch and the wiring is completely disconnected not good Phillips screw on top Phillips screw on bottom go ahead and loosen those from here carefully remove the limit switch and again in our case it's completely disconnected and we'll remove that all together next I'll just clean all that grease off there back to the hinge pin tool carefully align the splines inside the hinge pin give it a good couple Taps and back to the breaker bar and half inch socket and DIY is the difference between the port side and starboard side when it comes to the hinge pin when it comes time to loosen them as you saw from the starboard side as we were loosening the hinge pin it was pushing down on the gimbal housing however it's the complete opposite on the port side as you loosen this the gimbal housing will want to rise which makes it very difficult to loosen that hinge pin what most people do is put a foot on the bottom portion of the gimbal housing where the shift crank goes through and apply some inward pressure with your leg and foot to alleviate the bell housing from shifting up as you loosen this and I'll shift up show you where my shoe is as you can see it is pushing on the bottom portion of the gimbal housing and in our case not that bad again DIYs these can be very unfriendly and aggravating to remove due to the internal lactite as well as in the event that your hinge pin was not properly greased over the years because if it wasn't guess what that leads to a major headache when it comes time to removing these hinge pins again a quick view of the bell housing going up and down as I move the breaker bar and that's where that foot and leg power come in to alleviate that foreign to the ratchet and socket and there is the port side hinge pin check that out and to a close-up view of the inner portion and you can see actually our little washer there check that out carefully pull these out and if you're going to reuse them make sure you don't damage them set them in a safe location as you work through the remainder of the project to the opposite side and it looks like it's in there however further to the back and by pushing it from the back it is coming out just maneuver the bell housing in a way where you can slide these out we are going to purchase brand new washers at this point the bell housing itself is extremely loose the only thing holding it on are all of the Bellows the U-joint Bellow the exhaust Bellow and we are going to shift this to port side come inside here and you have a Bellow for your shift cable inside there and as you can see it is clamped on and secured in place and we need to loosen up that clamp all right DIYs hey breaking the action part two again for those that might be taking the route of replacing your shift cable your shift cable housing and shift cable rubber Bellow without removing your entire bell housing and additional Bellows this area right here becomes your workstation at this point and you can see the shift cable Bellow feeding onto a fitting inside the transom and secured in place with that worm gear clamp and this is the large portion of the Bellow now on the opposite end of the Bellow closest to the bell housing it is much smaller so in other words the large portion of the shift cable Bellow that you see now begins to narrow and get smaller as it makes its way to the top portion of that Bellow and at this point you'll have a good view of what that looks like you can carefully shift your bell housing port side and open up this gap between the bellhouse and your gimbal ring to again give you a better view of the opposite end and when you do that and you see the entire Bella you will see what is called a lock clip on the opposite end of the Bellow and I'll talk about that more here shortly however again this is breaking the action part two for those that are planning on replacing your shift cable your shift cable housing and Bellow without removing your bell housing and additional Bellows and again we will have additional break in the action Clips or footage for you so we hope you stay tuned and with that said let's go back to the original video where we will show you the tool used for loosening up that worm gear clamp you will need a tool like this which is a flexible shaft connected to a screwdriver back to the bell housing and gimbal ring I shifted it to the left or port side and again the flexible shaft and as you can see it turns pretty nicely you'll carefully insert this all the way in until you are in line with the screw on the clamp and this is a quarter size in our case and once you get that in place and over the screw you can carefully begin loosening it by turning it counterclockwise let me give you a better View and we believe it's loose here's a much better view of the clamp itself that secures the shift cable Bellow to the housing and again all you'll do is loosen that up to a point where you can remove that shift cable Bellow from the housing that it connects to after loosening that clamp I have grabbed a very long flathead screwdriver check that out and I'll reposition the camera back inside and all I'm going to do is come in from below I'm going to grab a hold of the Bellow and basically push it off the housing that it connects to at that point I can get a little further behind and the last thing you want to do is touch the housing itself do not damage scratch or gouge that in any way at this point you can see the inner cable housing so we are satisfied with that that Bellow is loose and will be very easy to remove when that time comes in the project all right doors hate breaking the action part three for those that are choosing to replace your shift cable shift cable housing and Bella without removing the bell housing and additional Bellows now that we have loosened up the worm gear clamp and use that screwdriver to shift this portion of the rubber Bellow away from the fitting you got to see the inner shift cable housing however let's talk about the opposite end of this rubber Bellow the Bellow itself or accordion style lips taper off and narrow as they make its way to the opposite portion in other words the opposite end of the rubber Bellow is much smaller than the end shown on the screen right now and on top of that the opposite end is not secured by a worm gear shown right here it is secured and locked in place by a lock clip and at this point you have two options you can grab a screwdriver or a pair of pliers and carefully extend that lock clip or loosen it and open it up to release the pressure on the rubber Bellow and you can then go back out to the front portion of the bell housing and use that socket specifically designed for that chip cable fitting and turn it counterclockwise until it separates from the bell housing however if you go that route just keep in mind that as you turn that shift cable housing counterclockwise with the socket and Ratchet the entire shift cable housing will turn counterclockwise with it from that exact fitting all the way up to the top portion of your inboard engine so again just keep that in mind and once the fitting is 100 loosened up and pulled away from the bell housing you can then carefully pull the entire shift cable housing out of the bell housing and at this very point right here on the screen the ship cable housing is inside that Bellow so what you'll do is you'll carefully pull the entire shift cable housing out and it will continue to slide through the top portion of this rubber Bellow so that's option number one in diy-ers I'll be honest with you this is the more annoying and harder route to go so I want to share with you option two and really this is what all the technicians and maintenance Personnel at the marinas do they will come into this area they will ship the bell housing port side to open up this Gap they will loosen up that worm gear clamp they will pull this portion of the rubber Bellow off and away from the transom fitting and then they'll grab a utility knife and go to the opposite end of the Bell where the lock clip is and that lock clip is not a whole circle in other words it does not loop around the entire Bellow like this worm gear clamp does there is a gap or opening in it where again they will take the utility knife and they will cut from the very top of this rubber boot all the way down to the bottom and after they cut it they'll just pull this entire rubber Bellow off of the shift cable housing without ever having to loosen or open up that locking clip so if you go with option two which again is the easier option once you do that you will see the entire inner shift cable housing because again your rubber Bella will be fully removed and from there you can use Cutters to cut right through the shift cable housing and after you do that you can either pull the shift cable housing out from this very location here and the entire shift cable housing from this point all the way up to the top portion of your inboard engine will come out in this very location and after you do that you can move to the front portion of your bell housing and go back to that specifically designed socket and loosen and remove the shift cable fitting secured to the inner portion of your bell housing and once you loosen up and remove that fitting when you pull it out if you go with option two as I just talked about you should have maybe about two two and a half maybe three inches of black housing still connected to the back portion of that fitting whether that's important info to you or not because regardless at that point everything's junk the fitting the entire housing and this rubber Bella but that's okay because you're replacing it all so again this is breaking the action part two for those that are going to replace the shift cable the shift cable housing and the shift cable Bellow in addition there will be more break in the action footage or clips for your help so we hope you stay tuned and with that said from here we'll go back to the original video back to the wall I've got the adjustable shaft and quarter inch screwdriver back in its packaging and down below in the comment section as well as the description section is a link on where to purchase this as you just saw extremely important when it comes time to remove that worm gear clamp for the shift cable Bellow next we'll transition to Poor Side and I've got a very long Craftsman flathead screwdriver and again this is an alpha one gen one and back in the 80s Mercruiser engineering were kind enough to drill a hole right here and from there you can slide your very long flathead screwdriver all the way in where it can then make contact with the inner worm gear clamp that is securing the exhaust Bellow to the inner housing of the transom and as you can see right there and I'll try to give you a good view of it here inside now and as you can see the flathead screwdriver lines up perfectly with the screw on the worm gear clamp however that will depend on the person whose service this last and what I mean by that is in the event that the last person that surfaced this engine and replace the Bellows and then put everything back together in the event that they did not put that worm gear clamp in line with that hole you'll have a tough time aligning that screwdriver with the screw to remove it taking a step back what I'll do is loosen that screw and loosen that clamp again on the exhaust Bellow that secures to the transom housing next I spent about 10 seconds and carefully pulled the bell housing outward toward me to widen the gap between the bell housing and the gimbal ring now we can come inside and see the U-joint assembly Bellow as you see here and on the back side is a large worm gear clamp and to the right of that you can see the securing screw next go and grab that adjustable shaft screwdriver with a quarter inch and come in down below and what you'll do is position that quarter inch socket on the worm gear screw and you will carefully begin unscrewing we are now on and carefully again unscrewing that screw yeah and as you can see the clamp itself is now loose check that out taking a step back what I did next was carefully shift the bell housing and gimbal ring starboard side or to the right and that opens up this area right here to allow us to gain access to the internal water tube and check that water tube out badly damaged dry rotted and begging for replacement and here's the tool I will be using Down Below in the comments section as well as description section is a link on where to purchase this this will be awesome to shift right into that little Gap to cut that water tube however if you don't have that tool and don't want to buy that tool well a standard utility knife will work as well it may just take a few more seconds I've now repositioned the camera and again Shifting the bell housing as well as gimbal ring here starboard side or to the right just opens up this Gap to give you better access to the water tube and when it comes time to cut I will have the bladed portion on top and I'll do my best to give you a good view of this I'm now on the water tube and I'll apply some friendly pressure to cut through it as you can see now it is completely cut which is what we wanted back up tapping out front and US alpha one gen 1 owners we do not have an internal locking ring that secures the U-joint Bellows to the actual bell housing however for all of you alpha one gen 2 as well as Bravo engines you have an internal locking ring right here and that has to be removed at this point to allow you to remove the U-joint Bellow from the bell housing and there is a specific tool for removing that internal locking ring and down below in the comments section as well as description section will be a link to purchase that and DIYs I'll be honest some people buy it some don't however if you choose not to buy it and go about removing that internal locking ring with a few tools you have at home just be extra careful not to gouge scratch or score the internal portion of the bell housing that the U-joint Bellow mates with to create that oil tight and watertight seal to keep the water out of this entire U joint assembly cavity however again us alpha one gen 1 owners do not have that internal locking ring in addition I shifted the bell housing port side or to the left and you alpha one gen 2 as well as Bravo owners you have an internal oil line in here and you have mistake that for your shift cable which is right there again it's an oil line and it feeds all the way up to your reservoir on your inboard portion of your engine and at this point you can use that tool that we just showed cutting the water tube or a utility knife and carefully cut that oil line just ensure you have something down below to catch the oil to alleviate a mess that would not be good I set the camera back and at this point you can carefully pull on the bell housing carefully and keep in mind that even though we loosened up the clamps that secure the backside Bellows to the transom or housing the Bellows themselves are secured and held on tight with Bellow adhesive and in most cases that stuff is very strong and hard to break loose so if you can reach your hand in here and pull on the Bellows great but I'm going to show you what the shops do they do not spend all day tugging on this bell housing to break that adhesive free on the inner housing they grab a utility knife and cut right through the Bellows when you take your boat into the shop they remove these Bell housings super fast by again just cutting right through them and pulling everything out so I'll show you that now and for this part of the project I've grabbed my Craftsman utility knife and a fresh new blade and again all I'm going to do is kind of pull out on the rear portion of the bell housing exposing the U-joint Bellows and go in between two of the accordion lips and make a cut and I'll do my best to give you a good view of this foreign as you see here and just cut all the way through now to the opposite side and again I'm just cutting the entire fellow at this point go ahead and carefully remove the coiled wire that's inside the U-joint belt themselves and it just comes right out as shown here and yes you're going to get a little dirty but that's okay sorry if my hand's getting in your way and there is the ring that's inside the entire U joint Bellows very greasy and very dirty set that aside now to a close-up and again there is the U-joint Bellow that we just cut and as you just saw it just took a few seconds down below is our exhaust Bellow and to the left of that is the water tube that we just cut and again if that adhesive is giving you trouble and you are unable to pull the exhaust Bellow off the inner housing even though you have already loosened the clamp well you might want to grab your utility knife and cut through that exhaust below as well and we are going to do that at this point in addition diy-ers you may just want to cut from the get-go without loosening any of the clamps however we owed it to you to show you where the clamps were as well as where the screws are that secure or tighten the clamps and for you Alpha gen 1 owners that little access hole for the exhaust Bella screw however again we're just going to cut that lower exhaust valve with a utility knife next we'll pull out and carefully shift the bell housing port side and again grab your utility knife and it looks like our shift cable is already broken which is not a problem because we are going to replace it and in addition at this point we were going to snip that anyways after cutting the exhaust Bellow however since it's already broken one less thing we have to snip and again pull this out and I'll just make my cut there we go and we will pull this entire bell housing out and set it in a safe location next I'll pull the shift cable out a bit and as you can see the clamp itself has been loosened to a point where it can basically pull it all the way off set that aside and you've got this securing lock here and in most cases it's pretty tough to get off so all I'm going to do is transition back to my utility knife grab the base end and just cut the Bellow and DIYs there is the shift cable Bellow and again I use the utility knife cut all the way through it made it much easier to remove I didn't even have to remove this clamp and no need to salvage this because the new shift cable and Bellow assembly kit comes with a brand new clamp now to another close-up in diy-ers this is what I'm worried about all that insulation inside my exhaust and from what I can tell there were no holes in the actual exhaust pillow so unfortunately we need to go back up top after we clean that exhaust portion out and figure out how Critters got inside the exhaust we were making progress I have removed as much of that insulation that I can get a hold of and there was a lot and unfortunately it continues Inward and out the exhaust pipe that is inside the inboard engine or in other words on the inner portion of the hull and again at this point unfortunately I know it's not clean and clear so I have to clean that out because the last thing I want to do is get everything rebuilt and put back together and then start the engine with a clogged exhaust pipe that would not be good and here's the Craftsman shaft vac I'll be using foreign I've done vacuuming I spent about a minute and a half vacuuming I inserted that hose as far into the exhaust system as possible and surprisingly quite a lot went in so [Music] and there we go now to the inside of the vacuum and not much and that's a good thing that's what we were hoping we believe that lump sum that we took out just a bit ago was the bulk of it and hopefully what's inside this vacuum right there is the last of it however again we are going to run an endoscope through the exhaust system next I'll flip it to the opposite side it's time to remove the shift cable fitting here and this manufactured part number by Mercruiser it is a long deep socket specifically designed to remove this fitting from the bell housing and as I mentioned some people buy it some don't but I recommend purchasing it down below in the comment section as well as description section will be a link on where to purchase this and this part right here a three-quarters inch socket goes over it so go ahead and properly seat the tool I've got a three quarters inch socket and I will just unscrew this fitting we did loosen it and this is why because when it gets to this point of the project as you can see it is extremely easy to unscrew if we did not unscrew this earlier in the project it would be very hard to remove that fitting with the bell housing not secured to the boat so again just a tip and at this point you can unscrew it by hand remove the tool and check that out there is the fitting for the shift cable and again all of this will be brand new as you can see here jump down inside the bell housing where we just removed the shift cable fitting we will clean everything up and install all brand new parts here's the old one and here is the new one shift cable housing and fitting again what we'll do is clean this all up next I safely secured the bell housing into our Vise and scrolling above right now is a link to video on how to install a vice to a workbench definitely comes in handy we are going to install the shift cable housing only the cable will come later down the road in the project back to the shift cable housing and we need to apply perfect seal or gasket maker to the thread and that is per our service manual and again this is what replaced the Quicksilver perfect seal we'll open this back up and stir it just a little bit and we'll just apply just a little bit to the thread again of the shift cable fitting and this is going to help create a very nice watertight seal inside that bell housing camera is now repositioned and I'm going to shift the lever out of the way and again there's the hole that the shift cable will go into and go ahead and clean that with lacquer thinner and from here what we can do is grab this portion first and we are going to insert it in that hole and carefully feed this shift cable housing through until this portion comes up and we can insert it into the thread and diy-ers do not cross thread this it should screw in very easily and back to the socket that is specifically designed for removing and installing this portion of the shift cable housing that will go over the plastic part that extends out and again do not cross thread this and as you turn this the entire cable on the opposite end will turn with it so keep that in mind and just be careful as you tighten this so again as I tighten that shift cable fitting I'm also turning the cable on the opposite end to alleviate damage to the cable okay once you get a hand tight transition to the three quarters inch socket and continue tightening this fitting taking a step back and DIY is here is what it looks like as of right now got the shift cable housing just hanging through the opposite side there let's go inside get a better view of the fitting and again you want it flush with the inner portion of the housing and that sealant again is very important in creating that watertight seal to alleviate any water getting into that thread and making its way inside your shift cable Bellow which we are now going to lubricate and slide on the bottom portion and all the way up next I grab the Quicksilver Marine Grace 24c I'm going to use that to lubricate this cable and I've got some paper towel readily accessible and I'm going to try not to overdo it but I'm basically going to start right when the Black housing portion of the cable begins and a real thin coat basically the whole way up the cable and when it comes time after the shift cable Bellow is on I'll wipe this clean next I'll grab the Bellow and as you can see there is a difference in size with the housing that has to go through the shift cable Bellow hole so I will grab just a little bit of 2 4C and to push it inside the Bellow and from here do your best not to damage or rip the rubber Bellow as you install this and it's not going to be easy because you're greasy I'll grab a paper towel get a good grip and this may go a long way I'll come in at the bottom and again just apply some pressure push that Bellow onto the larger portion of the housing as you put this on a bit of advice if you get this portion of the housing stuck in between one of the gaps or accordion beveled sections you may puncture your Bellow and that's not what you want and if you don't puncture your Bellow and get this portion stuck in between a gap it makes it tough to push this on our ADR say break in the action part four this is really important again in the event that you are going to replace your shift cable your housing and the rubber ship Cable Bella without removing your bell housing and additional Bellows and water tube when you get to the portion where you are inserting your brand new ship cable housing inside the front portion of the bell housing where you will then feed it through the transom and through the hull into the boat and Route it all the way back out to the top portion of your inboard engine don't forget to install your rubber shift cable Bellow at this exact point in other words take a look at the top right corner of the screen you can see the back portion of our bell housing as well as the very large U-joint Bellow and again when you feed these shift cable housing through the front portion of the bell housing and that large brass fitting on the complete opposite end of the shift cable housing don't forget to install your shift cable Bellow in that little Gap that you are working with with the entire bell housing and Bellows still connected to the transom because long story short if you run the entire shift cable housing through the front portion of the bell housing and through the transom and through the hall and Route it all the way up to the top portion of of your inboard engine and then secure that brass fitting to the additional parts and secure all the linkage as well as secure the fitting on the front portion of your bell housing by using that specifically designed socket once you get to that point diy-ers in the event that you forget to install your shift cable Bellow well unfortunately at that point it will be literally impossible to install which obviously I do not have to explain how bad or unfortunate that will be you will have to unscrew and loosen everything back up and pull that entire housing all the way back away from the top portion of the inboard engine and through the hall and through the transom and back to that small little Gap that you're working with in between the bell housing and transom fitting that the shift cable Bellow secures onto and at that point carefully install your shift cable belt and lubricate the housing and then continue sliding that housing all the way back through the transom as well as the hull of the boat and rerouting it all the way back up to the top portion of your inboard engine where you will then secure everything back together so again diy-ers don't forget that step however from here back to the original video from here I will clean all that grease off the cable now to a close-up and we are not going to shift the Bellow all the way up flush with the inner portion of the housing that will come later in the project here's the packaging for the larger clamp and smaller clamp not a bad time to put those on now and to a close-up of the two clamps and everyone's different I choose not to have the clamps installed on the Bellow as I shift it onto the housing and that is to prevent any damage to the Bellow or housing from here what I like to do grab some needle nose pliers go inside and just carefully extend your pliers to open up that clamp that's going to be positioned and secured on this portion of the Bellow and again needle nose pliers I'll go in the center I'll extend it and carefully open up that clamp not too much but enough to allow you to shift it onto the Bellow without damaging it and you'll notice right now it's loose I'll grab a larger pair of pliers and just carefully crimp it but I do not want this fully crimped and tight just compressed to a point where it's not going to fall off we'll tighten this clamp later in the project and to the full opposite end of the housing I will shift this clamp all the way up and on and I'll just tighten it down so it doesn't fall off larger clamp is tight to a point where it's not going to come off this lower lip however it's still loose so I can move it you don't want to tighten this yet that'll come when everything's put together on the boat into another close-up and here is our old shift cable Bellow and honestly it was not in that bad of condition just a little bit of dry rotting in between the little beveled portions here as you see and diy-ers from here we're heading back out to the boat to install this bell housing into the gimbal ring and transom back to the garage and behind the boat a few very important things I want to point out before installing that bell housing into place in the transom I've got my clamp for my opposite end water hose and positioned as shown here slide that on I'm also going to grease the inner hole here of the gimmel bearing and you can do this when you install the gimbal bearing but we're going to do it now taking a step back and I've grabbed the brand new shift cable housing and what a lot of people do is they will attach it to the old shift cable housing either by tape or something else and then they'll go inside the boat and pull it through in addition some people will use string trimmer line however what I have found over the years is the more you add to this portion as well as the old housing in other words the larger you make this by adding tape or a line it's going to be very difficult to pull it through that hole so what we do is we go inside the boat take photos of the routing of the old housing and then we pull it out prior to inserting this in that hole inside the boat to the inboard engine and DIYs this is a pretty important and step you want to ensure that you route the brand new housing and cable the exact same way the old one is so coming up to the top and we are going to follow it all the way down and it comes all the way down here and then it goes way down into here and feeds through the hull right there and again diy-ers all I'm doing now is coming inside here and pulling that old shift cable housing out and here it comes and there it is back outside to the back of the boat and the next thing we are going to do come inside and you see a black plastic insert where the shift cable housing will go into and most people don't replace that little plastic insert mainly because it may still be in good condition however we are going to remove that and replace it with a brand new one that comes with the shift cable housing and the way this works is you've got two teeth or lock tabs on this outer portion we'll use needle nose pliers to compress it and we need to push it inside the boat and then we'll retrieve it in our case the little locking Tabs are on the top and bottom and again just compress it trying to give you a good view of this it's not easy to grab a hold of and ours is going through just fine and it's through and to a close-up as you can see the black plastic insert is no longer inside the hole let's go inside the boat and retrieve it and there it is another option you actually have is to push this in with the old housing still installed and coming through the transom where you can still see the housing however just keep in mind we've done that a few times over the years and as you pull that housing up and out nine times out of ten this little insert Falls deep inside the engine and as you can see it's a little dirty but again there's those teeth right there that you can press see that and it slides right through the hole it's now time to feed the new shift cable housing through the hole and if you have left the original plastic insert and you're not replacing it it's a tight fit to get this portion of the housing through it so what some people do is add a little bit of 2 4C grease to this portion of the housing and maybe three to five inches outward on the black housing as they slide that in however because we have removed that plastic insert it's a wide open hole and we will have no issue pushing the cable through and into the boat as you see here and it's at the back of the engine we'll go inside and continue pulling it through however before you go inside the boat to pull the housing up make sure you position your bow housing accordingly to give yourself some slack as you pull the housing through and up into the bow because the last thing you want to do is start dragging your bell housing across the floor and damaging that so again get the bell housing pretty close to the bottom portion of the engine to give you a lot of slack in the housing back inside the boat I'll do my best to give you a good view of this I see the copper colored end of the shift cable and I will pull it up there it is and I'm routing it around and through cables and wiring the exact same route the old housing was and right now I feel the tension or weight of the bell housing I will no longer pull and as you can see at this point we are routing the new shift cable housing accordingly and it is now time to install our brand new plastic insert right there let's go and open that and we'll also need to install the protective sleeve which unfortunately was not installed on the old one not sure why new plastic fitting out of the packaging and again there is the compressible Locking tabs and we are going to come to the opposite end of the housing and just slide this all the way down and into place I wait to install that insert until this point because without the help of the housing guiding that fitting down and into place in the hole believe it or not it makes it pretty tough to find the hole and again using the brand new shift cable housing as a guide to shift this plastic insert all the way down and through that hole and push it through until it clicks outside the boat and as you can see the insert is installed and locked in place and again two quick bits of advice number one as we showed you use the brand new shift cable housing to guide that insert down to the hole to insert it and number two come to the outside and position the housing accordingly so it's basically centered in that hole and not applying too much pressure to one side it'll make it tough to get that in and to do that you'll need to position the bell housing accordingly as well again to Center that cable taking a step back and this little protective sleeve that comes in the packaging of the shift cable accessories including your shift cable Slide the safety wire that little plastic insert we just installed again is this protective sleeve that will go on the actual shift cable housing and it will be installed on the inner portion of the hull and we are not going to install that yet we are going to wait until we pick up the bell housing and shift it into place and secure the water tube exhaust Bellow U-joint Bellow and shift cable Bellow and at that point we will install this protective sleeve and we are now going to shift the bell housing up into the gimbal ring and transom and continue the project from there I will pick up the bell housing and as I shift the bell housing up and into place I'm also guiding the shift cable through the hole very carefully seconds and I'm going to set the bell housing down on my stool as I'm getting pretty close here's the shift cable Bellow I'll go inside and ensure that the shift cable housing is routed properly inside the bone now and here's the shift cable and it is positioned and routed in the right direction and I'm going to place it right there and go back outside the boat and continue shifting that bell housing into the transom I reposition the camera and DIY is at this point you're kind of doing about 10 to 15 things at the same time and as you shift that bell housing up and into the gimbal ring and transom again you need to align your water tube with the fitting I'll do that first and then after that I'll press the U-joint Bellow onto this housing here and secure that and then I'll move down to the shift cable and install the Bellow and tighten that as well and then I'll come back to the water tube and tighten that I let the adhesive dry for about 10 minutes and I'm going to slide everything in place again the first thing I'll install is the water tube to the inner fitting inside here and after that I'll install the U-joint Bellow and the water hose is on and from here do your best not to pinch the trim limit and trim Center wiring as you slide your U-joint Bellow into place from here you can grab a flashlight just kind of look inside and again guide that U-joint Bellow onto that housing now to a close-up view here is the clamp and screw that is going to secure the U-joint Bellows and I'm going to place this on and turn clockwise make a progress the U-joint Bellow is secured by the clamp and I have carefully shifted the shift cable belt onto the housing as you can see here what I'll do next is Slide the clamp down the Bellow and onto that portion right there next I grab the flexible shaft screwdriver and ours again is a 5 16 down there I'll give you a close-up as I screw it tight and I will use my left hand to ensure that the clamp itself stays in position as I screw it tight at this point the inner shift cable Bellow clamp is secured as well as the U-joint clamp up tap we will now shift to the outer portion of the shift cable Bellow and we are going to crimp this clip in place making progress this is crimped in place and what I did was I used my finger to get to the back side and pull it forward toward me as I used a pair of pliers to apply pressure in a circular manner to create that watertight seal and where this sits there's about an inch to an inch and a half of exposed housing inside here feeding to the back portion of this part right here next grab your washers that go in between the bell housing and gimbal ring and the hole has to match up with the outer hole that the hinge pin goes in and you can just carefully move your bell housing back and forth come to the side to ensure that the washer is not obstructing the hole and I'm going to move this back this way now to a close-up again starboard side and you can see that that washer is not obstructing the hole that the hinge pin will go into next grabbing my hinge pin I've got it connected to the removal and install hinge pin tool and I will apply some Loctite 271 not too much but you want it on there and do not cross thread this DIY or hinge pins should go in extremely easily and you may need to adjust the bell housing as you screw this in and we're going to move it just a little bit and again just by moving the bell housing ever so slightly you'll notice screwing in the hinge pin is very friendly once you got it hand tight transition to your ratchet and socket in our case the half inch and I'm not going to tighten it all the way I'll move to the opposite side install the washer and hinge pin washer is now in place I've grabbed the second or port side hinge pin and I'll add a little bit of Lifetime 271 as shown here and again DIY is extremely important do not cross thread this give us some friendly Wiggles now to the ratchet taking a step back what I did next was ensure that the hinge pin both port side and starboard side are flush with the outer portion of the gimbal ring and what I'll do next is grab the torque wrench again 95 foot pounds I'll start starboard side and ensure that your install tool is fully seated inside that hinge pin and again 95 foot-pounds and now it's the opposite from what it was when we removed the hinge pins the starboard side will come up as you tighten it so you'll need to put your foot in place and we will screw this on until it makes the click there we go 95 foot-pounds now port side [Music] there we go 95 foot-pounds both port and starboard come down below and rotate the shift shaft to ensure everything works properly so in our case it was already properly lubricated with Quicksilver Marine Grease 24c if you are installing this for the first time during the project make sure you lubricate the bushing on the bottom as well as the upper bushing that consists of two oil seals and the top part here where this rotates on and I have lifted up the trim cylinders with bungee cords and actually I'm going to replace these and what I'll do is post a link Down Below in the comments section as well as the description section to show you how we replace these exact trim cylinders or ramps let's head inside the boat back inside the boat and again we need to ensure that we reroute our brand new shift cable housing throughout the engine compartment and to the top portion where we secure it and we did just that we routed the brand new shift cable housing accordingly to match the previous one from here we've got a few things inside that package that we'll pull out and here are the few things that we need and we will grab this first and we will come down to the opposite end of the shift cable and without cross threading it we will screw this in all the way inside the housing until it bottoms out inside this portion here and once it bottoms out go ahead and rotate your jam nut all the way down until it is flush with the housing and that is going to lock it in place I'm going to grab an adjustable wrench or wrench and tighten that in place do not over tighten it next what I'll do is insert that cylinder inside the insert there and we'll make the final adjustments once we get the outdrive installed and the absolute parts to the shift cable at this point now that I have the brand new shift cable housing rerouted properly to match the old housing and this portion threaded in and locked with the jam nut and the cylinder inside the housing here I feel comfortable going way down below and wrapping the shift cable housing that comes through the hull where the black plastic insert we installed a bit ago and par 5 is and all you have to do is attach this and begin wrapping it it's very friendly in DIY is although this is not the location that this wrap will be I want to show you how we install this again here is the open end and all you do is apply and once you get that very first wrap on you can do the rest with one hand check that out as you see there and again we'll remove it and install it down below where that plastic insert is and what I recommend is wrapping it maybe two to three times and then we can shift it way down in place and once I get it in place I'll continue wrapping it and simultaneously continuing to push it down into position now to a close-up of that protective wrap installed on the shift cable housing and again its purpose is to protect the shift cable housing down in that tight fit portion of the engine compartment coming back up top and before we install any additional items to this portion of the shift cable housing we'll head back down to the transom and bell housing and install our brand new shift cable back to the transom and bell housing and I've got our brand new shift cable wire and with the new instructions this is a new design when it comes to the shift cable slide and the safety wire is taped to the instructions read these diy-ers it's very important it talks about a few very important things number one the brand new wire is pre-cut so don't cut it number two again the design of the slide is different when it comes time to install the safety wire it has it explained on the second and third page and here is a little sub view of it and some additional important information and there is another view of it next before I install the wire into the shift cable housing I'm going to apply 24c Marine grease to a couple things number one the lever roller get that really greased up and number two the inner brass fitting of the housing and you will see why here when we install that shift cable slide next I've grabbed my shift cable slide and again here is the new design as shown there and we're going to remove the set screw don't lose that and we have to install this on the shift cable wire before we insert it into this fitting and feed it into the bow so again here's the shift cable go ahead and carefully unwrap it and once it's unwrapped you're going to put this end in this portion of the slide and that's going to go all the way through and then we are going to carefully insert it into the plastic fitting and feed it all the way through the housing and into the boat and do not force it just be careful and patient as you feed this in and the last thing you want to do is crimp or bend your wire as you do this that would not be good foreign and as you saw initially the wire had a little bit of tension as it made its way through the fitting that secures this plastic tube to the bell housing however once we're through there we should be good again just be patient and go slow and as you insert this don't go way back here and give yourself a lot of distance in between the plastic fitting and where you're pushing stay about a half an inch to an inch away from that fitting to ensure that you do not Bend or crimp The Wire and again there will be portions where it's just a little tight as it makes and bends and turns but that's normal and as you can see here's the opposite end of the shift cable wire and that is there by Design to alleviate the slide from coming off as well as assisting the slide in its movements as it works together with the lever and we're going to end it right there I'll pull this out grab your set screw make sure you do not cross thread this it should go in extremely easy pull this all the way out or the end portion of the wire is grabbing a hold of the back or opposite end of the slide and pinch it in place there and screw the set screw in until it bottoms out and once it bottoms out turn it an eighth of an inch that's it no more than an eighth of an inch from here push that in place and now that the set screw is there the opposite end of the wire is not going to come out let's go back in the boat back inside the boat to the top portion of the engine and as you can see the shift cable wire is coming out of the housing let's go back down below next I want to show you one thing notice how the shift cable slide rotates freely and that's because we loosen the set screw an eighth of an inch for the instructions if we cut that tight it really binds up on the inner wire and that is not what you want so again eighth of an inch make sure you can move the slide without any movement to the inner wire next grab your safety wire when this slide is put back together it will be positioned as shown here I'll push that in I'm going to come to the right side of the set screw and insert the wire in the hole and slide it through and I'm going to do two things I'm going to use the wire to carefully turn the set screw until I can push the wire up on that inner cavity here and I'm going to Center the wire and make a slight Bend and at the same time I'm going to tighten that set screw and then turn it back an eighth of an inch at that point really pull out on each end of The Wire and cross them as shown here next I'll grab some pliers and really pull them together there we go and I'm doing my best to give you a good view of this I'm going to grab a hold of the Dead Center there again crimp them maybe come in a little more as shown there and at that point you can begin turning the wires and wrapping them together as shown here no need to rush this go slow be precise as I always mentioned in the videos and yeah there's a specific tool to make this a lot easier but unfortunately we don't have a present with us and once you get that inner portion really tighten in place with the pliers you can then just use your hands and now the instructions say clip away the excess portion of the wire and a couple more turns before moving on pull the slide out just a bit grab a hold of your inner shift cable wire right here and rotate your slide and again it should rotate freely without any grip or interference with the inner wire and that is perfect and the whole purpose of the safety wire I'll bend that in as shown there is to ensure that this set screw never rotates because if it does that will interfere in the operation of the shift cable and wire that would not be good and from here I'm just going to slide that roller on the outer bottom portion of the lever and I'm going to slide this all the way in and again the reason why we greased the most inner portion of that fitting is because as you shift through your gears the inner portion of the slide slides on and off that portion of the fitting and we wanted it greased now to a close-up and it's not a bad idea to shift the inner portion of the shift cable slide as I did here and just push that all the way in flush with the inner portion there one last close-up of the safety wire and how I have it curled and installed and it's a good time also to test the movement of your slide and cable and lever perfect push it all the way flush back inside to the workstation come into the outdrap I want to show you some this will cut out in the upper unit or cavity that is specifically for your shift cable slide and when everything's put back together the shift cable slide will shift back and forth in that cutout back inside the boat to the top portion of the engine and I am going to add some 2 4C grease to this portion of the cable and if you didn't notice as you were installing this this portion only of the wire was greased however as it makes its way through the housing some of that grease may have come off so again just apply a thin layer of 24c at this point we're left with the plastic cover here the insert and the two set screws grab your insert and you'll notice that hole make sure you align the hole with where the cable is going to come through and from here we can carefully install it and as you can see the wire has made its way through in the remaining holes on either side of that insert or to install and secure your set screws and lock that inner wire in place next carefully without dropping them screw in your set screws and you want the set screws even and once you feel just a little bit of tension on the inner wire turn the black plastic cover upright take a look at inside your inspection hole to ensure that your inner wire is shown give it a couple friendly taps and from there tighten your set screws while simultaneously holding that back pressure to alleviate that inner wire from moving with this secured in place I'm going to pull the cover out and I'm just going to apply a very thin coat to this Rod here wipe my hands clean what I'll do now is just carefully test the movement perfect next part will require both hands I'll reposition the camera next we're going to remove the 7 16 nut and washer again do your best not to drop them from here try to refrain from forcing this plastic portion up and onto this threaded stud what I like to do is come to the back side where the cylinder meets the housing and raise it up just a bit you don't actually have to take the cylinder out of the housing however by raising it up it's going to alleviate any pressure on this portion here and just slide it right over the stud and slide this portion as well as the cylinder down at the same time so it doesn't get bound up next install your washer and screw on your 7 16 nut at this point it is secured as shown there from here we'll go back up to the throttle and we will shift it into the forward gear as it was prior to starting this project and by shifting it into forward it's going to prepare us configuration wise to install the outdrive to the bell housing next coming to the top portion of the housing I'm using unfortunately the old safety clip because I did not get a brand new one and I'll slide that through and I will bend the portion closest to us or the front of the boat upward foreign there that's exactly how it was installed before we took it apart and again I'll make my final adjustments once I get the outdrive installed and diy-ers from here double check everything to ensure everything is installed properly and secured properly to the back of the boat double check everything in regards to the shift cable slide and the lever and shaft coming down below as you can see that is how the lower portion of the shaft needs to be configured again into forward gear to properly configure us to install the outdrive taking a step back at di wires that's it that's where we're going to wrap up we really hope the video helped we're so thankful you've joined us and again we hope this gives you all the information needed to do this project and with that said we still have a lot to do actually and we're going to post links Down Below in the comments section as well as the description section and there will be a few of them there will be a link on showing us installing all new decals and on the decal you'll notice your serial number is etched in to the sticker and after we install the new decal we show you how to use that etching tool to etch in your serial number to the new sticker in addition a video link on installing the outdrive as well as a video showing us making the adjustments to the new trim sender and trim limit switch and we'll go down below and there will be a link to a video showing us replacing the trim Ram cylinders and the hydraulic lines so again a lot more to do and we're excited to show you the proper and safe steps to take for those projects again diy-ers we hope this helps as we always see here at this channel us diyers need to stick together so definitely reach out to us if you have any questions from here do us a favor below the video you will see that thumbs up icon click on that like the video subscribe to the channel definitely ring your YouTube Bell that would be very helpful to us we would really appreciate it thanks again for watching and we hope to see you at the next videos [Music]

Channel: DIY with Michael Borders

Views: 24,106

Keywords: Toolbox, DIY, do it yourself, Mercruiser rebuild, outboard bogging down, alpha outdrive bellows, replace outdrive bellows, DIY token

Id: 6khs8q5NyjI

Length: 70min 54sec (4254 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023