I have heard pro and con stories about whether to re-torque gimbal ring bolts. This is what happened to me with my 87 Alpha 1. Had about 2? side to side play that appeared to be in the gimbal ring (not steering arm). One note here, the two gimbal ring bolts appeared to be not as tight as they should have been, but at the time I attributed it to wear in the ring. I removed the ring and sent it out to JR Marine for repair. Couple of days later got a call from Ron Bender (great guy) saying there was nothing wrong with my ring, just some very minor wear, but nothing that required rebuilding. OK maybe the steering arm? Got everything back and put it back together (many tears, and much foul language) today. On the bench, swivel shaft in, torqued bolts to 30 ft. lb. Hmmm? tight as a drum. Steering arm on, torqued to 30 ft.lb. same, no play. Installed everything into the boat, torqued bolts to 55 ft. lb., arm to 60 ft. lb., everything is rock solid, NO play at all. My conclusion is that in THIS case ALL of the side to side play was caused by the gimbal bolts not being properly torqued. So there you go, take it for what it is worth, but should I have any play in the future the FIRST thing that I am going to do is re-torque the gimbal bolts.
