twin alphas,one witha little side play

[crazy charlie]

I have twin alpha drives,and noticed when cleaning them up after hauling boat ,that the starboard had some side to side play and the port does not.I can move the starboard drive a little each way and i assume this is excessive.How does this get corrected????Charlie

 

[Bondo]

Re: twin alphas,one witha little side play

Well Charlie,<br />It could be several things.... <br />It could be the linkage Between the drives.....<br />Or it could be the Tiller Arm, or the swivel pin bushings, or the swivel pins... <br />It Could even be the Gimbal Ring........

 

[rodbolt]

Re: twin alphas,one witha little side play

hello<br /> unless they both have power steering and are tied together one usually has a small amount of play. not knowing how your tillers are set up and excactly what is moving in relation to the transom shield all I can advise is to carefully inspect all tie bars, tillers, and gimbal ring clamps I think the torque on the bolts is 45 ft pounds and should be checked every 100 hours. the lower and upper swivel pins and the gimbal hinge pins. if it is just normal slack it the tie bars its no worries. with a tie bar set up the normal toe in will take up any slack at planing speeds unless you have a 70 MPH plus hull a small ammount of lost motion wont be noticed but I would check everthing for worn/broken parts<br />good luck and keep posting

 

[crazy charlie]

Re: twin alphas,one witha little side play

Thanks guys i will ckeck out the tightness on everything.The gimbal ring????I have just had the gimbal bearing replaced in the spring.Does the ring hold the bearing?????Charlie

 

[MrBill]

Re: twin alphas,one witha little side play

chalie: There have been a few discussions on this, if you're experiencing the same issue. Here'a a note I posted in April that solved my problem. Hope it can work for you.<br /><br /> http://www.iboats.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004769 <br /><br />The Craftsman reversable ratchet box wrenches (mentioned in the post) ratchet up to 64 times per revolution and allow very tiny incremental turns in tight places. I found the one used in my repair so valuable I later bought a set.