motor seems loose to me

[stealthdrummer]

How much side to side play should there be on an outboard? It is a 1978 Champion bass boat with a 150 merc on it. The bolt that goes thru the two metal steering arms has a ton of play in it. Not sure if it is just loose or shot. If you stand behind the motor and grab each side of it you can get about 1.5 to 2 inches of travel in each direction out of it. Might be over guessing as I have not measured it but seems to be a bad thing if under power. Going to try and tighten up the bolt on the steering arms tomorrow and see what happens. Looks like someone at one point in time added a piece to raise the motor about 4 or 5 inches. It's not a jack plate but similar. Just wondering how this might alter performance. I will shoot some pics and post tomorrow morning.

 

[stealthdrummer]

Re: motor seems loose to me

 

[j_martin]

Re: motor seems loose to me

That bolt is the most critical part in the whole steering system. The next most critical parts are the parts it's going through.

Steering has to be rock solid tight to maintain control when planed out on the pad. That's the reason for dual cables. They are adjusted to slightly fight each other to remove all free play.

If that bolt shears at WOT, you'll probably do a hook turn, flip, or otherwise get seriously killed.

Raising the motor is a common performance setup. Looks like cornering, stability in waves, etc. are being sacrificed for all out speed. Maybe it's the wrong engine for the boat. Not enough info in the pictures to tell. If you don't lose water pressure when you trim it out to the limit, or at least very near the limit, it isn't too high if speed is the goal.

hope it helps
John

(edit)
On second look, that doesn't look like a proper setup for dual steering links. I believe it has the wrong steering arm on it. The links should each be independently bolted to the steering arm. That arm is for a single link, and could be used with a dual cable system if both cables entered the same side of the tubes.

 

[stealthdrummer]

Re: motor seems loose to me

both cables enter from the same side so I am going to dig into the bolt a bit and replace it with some grade 8 pieces. While I'm in there check everything else. I thought that everything should be nice and tight with very little to no play.

I checked into the raised piece and belive it to be a factory adapter for the Merc engine on this particular model. With the engine straight up and down with the transom the water pickup is in about the same place as my dad's boat. Some guys with older Champions have told me that the factory had different plates to bolt up different motors in the late 70's. Don't know if that is true just what I have been told.

I will try and get a better pic of the tubes and a shot with the motor down so you can get an idea of how everything is sitting.

 

[stealthdrummer]

Re: motor seems loose to me

John, here are the updated pics for you to look at and give your opinion.

 

[stealthdrummer]

Re: motor seems loose to me

I noticed a couple of bolts missing from the mount. Better fix that!

 

[FLATHEAD MAC]

Re: motor seems loose to me

:facepalm: JUST COURIOUS WHY WERE THE TRANSOM JAWS CUT OFF? NOTICED IN CLOSE UP PICTURE OF STEARING CABLES. CLEARANCE ISSUE MAYBE. ALSO WOULD THINK OF HAVING AT LEAST 2 TO 3 THREADS SHOWING THRU LOCK NUT TO ASSURE PROPER LOCKING AND LESS CHANCE OF JUST BACKING OFF.

AOPOLOGISE FOR CAPS ,IM NOT YELLING

 

[stealthdrummer]

Re: motor seems loose to me

:facepalm: JUST COURIOUS WHY WERE THE TRANSOM JAWS CUT OFF? NOTICED IN CLOSE UP PICTURE OF STEARING CABLES. CLEARANCE ISSUE MAYBE. ALSO WOULD THINK OF HAVING AT LEAST 2 TO 3 THREADS SHOWING THRU LOCK NUT TO ASSURE PROPER LOCKING AND LESS CHANCE OF JUST BACKING OFF.

AOPOLOGISE FOR CAPS ,IM NOT YELLING

If they were cut off someone sure did a great job. They are finished and painted. Couldn't really tell you....I just bought it a few weeks ago. From some old Champion factory mechanics the story is that there were different adapter plates for each type of motor that was offered on the boat.

As far as some of the bolts go...yes some need to be longer in my opinion as well.

 

[j_martin]

Re: motor seems loose to me

That bolt is a special bolt. Get the proper one or maybe pay with your life. I believe it's a special stainless.

Like I said, there's always going to be a bit of play in mechanical linkages. It shouldn't be excessive. When it's as tight as it can get, you adjust the rest of the backlash out of the linkage by moving the steering rod tubes with the nuts on each end so that one cable is pushing slightly and the other one is pulling slightly, with zero lash. It's called a slight pre-load.

 

[stealthdrummer]

Re: motor seems loose to me

Got it all fixed last night. I was able to just tighten up the nut and put a little loc-tite on it for a little added security. With the nut tight the "play" fixed itself.