Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

[achris]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

when i bought my boat the "play" in the drive was also a concern of mine, when the boat was winterized I made a point of having that checked out cause I would have that fixed due to all the horror stories out there, the guy who looked it all over said " don't worry, it will go for years like that" and he had been looking in all the nooks and cranies for the source of the "play" ...he aso explained to me what the causes can be so I was satisfied with that explanation and will monitor the system..........everybody out there is looking to spend your money for ya in some cases I suspect.......bottom line is get it looked at and its no big deal to fix it yourself when you got the time.

This is a recipe for a disaster of epic proportions! All that's between you and control of that boat are the splines in the steering arm and the swivel shaft. "Monitor the system", is that code for "don't do anything until it kills someone"? Those worn splines will not send you a letter (or an email) to let you know when they are about to completely fail. One day you'll be driving happily along, at speed, and suddenly you'll be pulling a tight, full-lock circle, at the same speed. Guess where you and your passengers will be? If there's no deaths there'll be some very serious injuries....

In a word, GET IT FIXED BEFORE YOU CAUSE A MAJOR ACCIDENT!!! The 'guy who looked at it' needs to be put against a wall and shot!!!!

Shish, there are some stupid idiots out there!!! (referring to your 'guy who looked at it', not you)

 

[stonyloam]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

Chris +++

OK back to the problem here. There are two wear points in the gimbal ring assembly where your slack can occur. Where the steering arm attaches to a small square part of the upper swivel pin and where the gimbal ring is clamped onto the larger square part of the pin. The steering arm is clamped onto the pin with a bolt through the arm. Both are steel, but if the clamping bolt becomes loose it can wear. The gimbal ring is aluminum and is clamped onto the pin by the two bolts you see on the top of the ring. They are supposed to be retorqued every year, but almost no one does it. As I see it, the constant side to side torque can distort the ring ever so slightly and the bolts can become loose. When they become loose the ring can move on the shaft and starts to wear and you get some "slop". If those bolts are not retightened the slop will get worse and worse and the square hole in the ring will begin to get worn round, to the point where retightening will not correct the problem, then you have to replace the ring. So we do not know where you are yet. You need to determine if the slop is the ring or the arm. Like in bond-o's post. Bur first things first, tighten those bolts and see if it removes ALL of the slop. The procedure is for removing the gimbal ring. There are only two ways to remove the ring: either drill holes in the gimbal housing to access the nuts on the arm and swivel pin, or remove the transom assembly and do it on the bench. Now you should not have to actually remove the engine, just unbolt it and move it forward enough to SAFELY access the transom assembly bolts. If your transom assembly is in decent shape I see no reason to replace it. Anyway good luck.
P.S. If you keep those bolts tight, and retorque every year your ring should never wear out.

 

[achris]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

Terry, Great post. There was a time when Merc used a splined-square shaft. Once they started using the square-square shaft the 'slop' problems all but went away. The oldest splined-splined shaft have, by now, all either worn out completely or been updated. Usually the only sloppy steerings we see now are the splined-square ones, and the wear is in the upper splined section, where it connects to the steering arm. Yes, the bolts on the ring get loose, and most nobody does the annual on them .... Not saying this is the case here, just pointing out another possibility...

Cheers,

Chris....

 

[stonyloam]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

Thanks Chris. I have a 87 with a square/square so I figured he has the same in his 89. I was lucky, retorquing worked for me, and I make sure that is part of my spring ritual now and everything has stayed solid.

 

[avi8or3117]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

Thank you everyone for your valuable imput! I have enought info to go on now to start troubleshooting. Christmas then some boat repairs. Haha.

Thanks again and I wish everyone a safe a merry Christmas.
I'll report back with what I find.

Paul

 

[avi8or3117]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

Hello all... Back from the holidays and now ready to work on this steering problem. Im about to drill the two holes on either side of my gimbal housing to access the steering lever and before I do I was wondering about the Plug Kit. Ive purchased the Merc plug kit and the 1" NPT tap, but am kind of confused on tapping this hole. I understand there is a tap handle that can be used in conjunction with the tap so that it goes in straight, but its a HUGE handle. I will not be able to turn this handle/wrench without hitting the back of the boat. How do I tap these holes???? Any tricks out there on turning this tap and making sure it goes in straight????
Thanks

 

[RCAnderson]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

You can buy a 12 point socket that just fits over the square tap shank and use a ratchet. Add an extension to help you see if you are going in a straight line. Pipe taps are pretty forgiving as they are tapered. Drilling the hole straight is going to be a much more difficult proposition, however, in this case, close counts. There are other ways to drive the tap, but this will probably be cheapest and easiest.

Ryan

 

[Bondo]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

How do I tap these holes???? Any tricks out there on turning this tap and making sure it goes in straight????

Ayuh,... Yer gonna be tappin' Very Thin material,...

Use a crescent wrench, 'n be Careful....

 

[stonyloam]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

When I did mine 3 years ago I decided the plugs were crap, so I repaired the hole by epoxying the round aluminum drill cutouts back in. Here is what I did: In order to do it correctly I needed to make some thin backing to hold the cutout while the epoxy set. There are some photos to show how I did it. I cut a rectangular piece of aluminum sheet a little wider and a little shorter then the hole. I used flashing, but anything will work even a beer can (sand it well). I trimmed the corners so it would go through the hole and used a wallboard screw as a little handle to hold it in place while the epoxy set. I used JB kwik to hold the backing and for the initial setting of the cutout, and JB weld for the repair. Degrease the hole, cutout and the inside of the housing as best you can. Mix up a small batch of kwik and apply to the edges of the backing. Slip it in and hold in place till it has set, do the other side. Another batch of kwik and fill the screw hole and any small spaces around the backing. Apply some kwik to the back of the plug and gently press it against the backing and hold in place till it sets. Now you can mix up a good size batch of JB weld (JB marine if you can get it, sets up in 5 min) and fill in around the cutout. The JB will run, so I uses some duct tape and waxed paper to hold it in place till it set. May take a couple of applications to get it completely filled. Once it is filled and set, sand and paint. I left a small dimple just in case it needed to be done again. Takes a while to do, but it looks WAY better than the plugs, you have to look very very closely to see anything and so far it has held up very well. good luck

 

[achris]

Re: Lots of play/slack in my outdrive! Help please!!

Sweet job Terry, nice....