PTO Bearing/bellow help

[Fast Rider]

Hate to be the guy that posts about his boat in the pwc section but I’m hoping for some quick help. Family in town and they’d like to get on the water!

Here’s the boat thread I made if you’d like some light reading https://www.seadooforum.com/threads/05-challenger-replacing-pto-bearing-parts-help.115292/

Otherwise, the hose clamp that is on the pto bellow slipped off and allowed some oil to leak pst the bearing. I tried reseating it but it continues to pop off so I must be missing something here. I’ve put 60hrs on this bot since I purchased it with no issues and all of a sudden this clamp pops off. What would cause that? I feel like I must be missing something here..

 

[Fast Rider]

Here is a photo looking down from above the supercharger (supercharger removed). This hose clamp is what keeps sliding off. Even putting it just snug, it seems too loose to create a seal. Any ideas? Could this indicate something else going wrong (maybe a bearing going bad here or somewhere else down the driveline?) Seems weird it all of a sudden popped off

 

[Fast Rider]

Update - ordered an ear clamp to replace the standard hose clamp. Oil is still leaking through the bellow. I confirmed with an inspection mirror that the oil is seaping out between the outer surface of the bearing and the rubber bellow (with the engine at idle, it drips 1 drop about every 3 seconds). Any advice? Do I just need to crank down in the ear clamp to tighten it more? It’s on there pretty tight and I didn’t go tighter for fear of tearing through the bellow.

 

[Digdog]

I found that the normal gear clamps do not work so well, , I found the wide band clamps seem to slip off the bearing no matter how hard you try to get it on straight and the gear is so large that it leaks under it because it is a different curve than the bearing. what you can do is if you have a hose supplier near you is that if they sell the narrow band clamps you can use them, they are just slightly narrower than the clamp holding your carbon ring. Trick is that they only sell the narrow band clamps 1.25'' max diameter , however you can put two of them together and they fit perfectly. You can feel the bearing inside the rubber and place the clamp square on it , don't over tighten, Position the gear so you can easily reach it to tighten it later without removing anything , then as time goes on just check it for tension. Here is a photo of what they look like compared to a normal gear clamp. Great thing is you don't have to take everything apart to get the clamp on.

 

[Digdog]

Update - ordered an ear clamp to replace the standard hose clamp. Oil is still leaking through the bellow. I confirmed with an inspection mirror that the oil is seaping out between the outer surface of the bearing and the rubber bellow (with the engine at idle, it drips 1 drop about every 3 seconds). Any advice? Do I just need to crank down in the ear clamp to tighten it more? It’s on there pretty tight and I didn’t go tighter for fear of tearing through the bellow.

If you ordered an ear clamp you have to take everything apart to get it on, and they seem to slip off when there is oil on the bearing and the rubber , take a look at my reply , hope it helps you.

 

[POPPS]

I had a similar problem, however the motor was out if the hull, my clamp kept sliding off, no matter what, ,,what I found is that on the bearing there is a very narrow lip, so I cleaned the bearing with brake cleaner to remove any oil, and then put a layer of crazy glue on the bearing,,, let it harden, then secured the narrow gear clamp carefully over that narrow lip, not sure if this is helpful, but it worked for me.

 

[Fast Rider]

Yes I did confirm that oil is seaping out between the outer race of the bearing and the rubber bellow with an inspection mirror. Interesting thing was that I picked up a narrow band gear clamp and snugged it up, ran the boat in my garage for 30sec and no oil leaked out, but as soon as I put it in the water it started leaking again. That’s when I decided to pick up the ear clamp but even with that it still leaking (which makes me wonder if it’s seating on the narrow bearing surface properly). I used a step less ear clamp that has 3 “teeth” so I was able to install it without removing everything .

I may try to pull the bellow off the bearing (towards the motor) so I can get a better look at whats going on. I’d hate to pull the whole driveshaft assembly off just for a darn boot/clamp issue. How long does that procedure generally take for a first timer? I’ve done the supercharger enough now from this issue that I can have it off in about 15min!

 

[Digdog]

You might also check for a cracked boot or the bearing might not be seated correctly on the shaft and it's leaking from the 2 O rings or the seal/bearing itself could be leaking, You need some special tools to remove the driveshaft , the pump you could probably have out in an hour by just watching the tube, if you remove all that stuff you might as well inspect everything in the pump at the same time. At the end of the bearing is there a groove showing? I can't see in your photo because the boot is in the way.

 

[Fast Rider]

Does this help? No I don’t see a groove showing

 

[POPPS]

I had this problem with a brand new wake pro,,,and it was out of the hull,,,there are 2 lips on that besring, very narrow that the rubber cover fits over, I ended up cleaning the besring with brake cleaner, and putting crazy glue on the bearing and then later securing the narrow clamp over the proper lip.

 

[Digdog]

Does this help? No I don’t see a groove showingView attachment 54407

Okay, good photo. Yes it seems to be on correct, if there is a groove showing then its not on all the way and it can leak between the shaft and the bearing. With that eliminated try getting a clamp on it , maybe you can pull that back a little further and clean it before you try to clamp it.