08-29-2007, 02:53 AM
A small crack in the bellows can become a big crack, and that's a real problem. A lot of boats have sunk because of a big crack in the bellows, where water comes right into the boat, especially boats left moored in the water for an extended period. Some boat people even get so anal about it they replace the bellows once each year. The drive is quite easy to remove in most cases - - which makes it real easy for a thief to pull it off in just a few minutes. I haven't replaced a bellows myself but I've pulled drives off and it would probably be a fairly simple job to replace the bellows once the drive is off. It's recommended that you store the boat with the drive down, to relieve the tension on the bellows to help keep it from cracking.
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