Brad Christy

Now THAT I could see. A weak U-joint let’s go under the load of towing a boat, and it rips the bellows to shreds. Down she goes. 🤔

Thanks. Brad.
(937)545-8991

ThisIsLivin

That's why I bought a roll of Flex Seal, you never know what can happen. My brother hit a submerged picnic table on a spring run and wiped out both props and bent the prop shafts on his 43 Cruisers. Didn't know what he hit until he looked at the debris field.

cheech

Could of.
But IMO, they would of had to lose a whole drive or if not the gimbal bearing is extremely wiped out of it.
If a bellow is ripped to shreds and the shaft is still in the gimbal bearing, bearing is good, nothing else out of place, where could water enter that fast?

Brad Christy

Cheech,

I've always been told that, if the main bellows lets go completely, you're going to the bottom. Yes/no?

Thanks. Brad.
(937)545-8991

JaayTeee

If the shields are still on the gimbal bearing and the drive is in place, I don’t see that letting enough water in if they were towing someone in,
pull the input shaft out and have a 1” hole and that’s another story, I’m thinking maybe an inlet hose or hose off the sea pump failed to take it down that fast

hogie roll

I don’t think we identified the boat but the windshield is telling me it’s a formula 302. Which would make it pretty old, lots of rubber components could be failing at that age!

TeamSaris

Not related to this story at all BUT we had a 302 Formula with KAAMA drive sink on our lake years ago. Went down in the same exact fashion and fast. One of the drives had locked up....twisted right off the boat.

cheech

Many variables, but in a simple case; no.
Bearing is press fit in gimbal housing. Shaft is in inner race bore, then there is also a seal in gimbal housing in front of gimbal bearing (gets installed before bearing).
So if there is no failure of any of those and the bellow is breached, water being what it is will get in, but to no amount to swamp a boat.

But like Jaaytee said, once that shaft gets out of the bearing then you better have a good bilge pump.
Another scenario is if the bearing is completely wiped out, missing balls and whatnot.
U-joint fails, yoke breaks the hell out of everything, may wipe bearing out, on and on and on.

cheech

It just occurred to me being that Scooby Doo is on the front, it clearly is a Mystery Machine.

Brad Christy