I had steering play in my stern drive. After tightening the gimble ring clamping bolts to 55 ft pounds, almost all of the play is gone. Before I could see the gimble ring moving on the square insert. Now that both are tightened, the square insert and ring move as one and are nice and tight, but I still have a little left to right play. I'd say a fraction of an inch.
While it's a lot less than before - I can still move the drive about a 1/4 inch left to right- and when I do- I hear something clicking/hitting behind the transom wall inside the boat. I'm assuming this means I have some play in the steering ram assembly on the inside wall of the transom behind the engine. Because it's hard to get back there and see- can anyone give me any hints what I should be looking for when someone moves the stern drive back and forth while I've got my head buried back there?
I've read posts about the steering linkage nut requiring tightening and this requiring either getting the access hole drilling kit - or removing the engine/transom which I don't want to do if at all possible. I don't think it's the steering nut inside the transom bracket that would require drilling holes to get at- because I don't hear any clicking inside there when I move the drive left to right. I'm assuming if it were loose I might be able to hear it. Since I hear something moving/hitting on the inside of the boat when use my hands to I move the drive unit to the point it stops at the extreme left and right amount of play. Before I look at the possibility of doing the access hole kit and looking at the steering linkage nut - I'm hoping there's something a bit easier in the steering ram/bracket inside the engine compartment I can look at first.
P.S - for anyone reading this post about tightening the two top gimble ring clamping bolts at the top of the gimble- you HAVE to use a torque wrench and you need to do one bolt, rotate the drive with the steering wheel so you can gain access to the nut behind the bolt (otherwise it will spin and not tighten), and then tighten the other bolt and repeat until both bolts hold 55 pounds. While this isn't a U bolt and two separate bolts- it behaves like a U Bolt and when you tighten one -the other side may loosen a bit. It was only after several back and forth rounds of about a 1/2 turn or so on each bolt that my unit tightened up - and without a torque wrench it would be REALLY easy to over tighten a bolt and crack the ring assembly. I would get one bolt to 55 pounds, tighten the other and then the other one would drop back to 45 or so. Don't try this without a good torque wrench with a good read out on the foot pounds. I boats forums are the BEST. Always do what these guys tell you to do.
While it's a lot less than before - I can still move the drive about a 1/4 inch left to right- and when I do- I hear something clicking/hitting behind the transom wall inside the boat. I'm assuming this means I have some play in the steering ram assembly on the inside wall of the transom behind the engine. Because it's hard to get back there and see- can anyone give me any hints what I should be looking for when someone moves the stern drive back and forth while I've got my head buried back there?
I've read posts about the steering linkage nut requiring tightening and this requiring either getting the access hole drilling kit - or removing the engine/transom which I don't want to do if at all possible. I don't think it's the steering nut inside the transom bracket that would require drilling holes to get at- because I don't hear any clicking inside there when I move the drive left to right. I'm assuming if it were loose I might be able to hear it. Since I hear something moving/hitting on the inside of the boat when use my hands to I move the drive unit to the point it stops at the extreme left and right amount of play. Before I look at the possibility of doing the access hole kit and looking at the steering linkage nut - I'm hoping there's something a bit easier in the steering ram/bracket inside the engine compartment I can look at first.
P.S - for anyone reading this post about tightening the two top gimble ring clamping bolts at the top of the gimble- you HAVE to use a torque wrench and you need to do one bolt, rotate the drive with the steering wheel so you can gain access to the nut behind the bolt (otherwise it will spin and not tighten), and then tighten the other bolt and repeat until both bolts hold 55 pounds. While this isn't a U bolt and two separate bolts- it behaves like a U Bolt and when you tighten one -the other side may loosen a bit. It was only after several back and forth rounds of about a 1/2 turn or so on each bolt that my unit tightened up - and without a torque wrench it would be REALLY easy to over tighten a bolt and crack the ring assembly. I would get one bolt to 55 pounds, tighten the other and then the other one would drop back to 45 or so. Don't try this without a good torque wrench with a good read out on the foot pounds. I boats forums are the BEST. Always do what these guys tell you to do.
