Loose steering

[Pismo]

My stock Bravo 1 drive has about 2-3 inches of play. That is the aft most end I can move by hand about 2-3" left-right without the wheel moving, anything inside moving, etc. Looking closer I saw the tiller arm was not moving so the slop is in the gimble. I know I need full hydraulic but absolutely cannot afford it now, so next summer for that. So I tightened the nuts at the top of the gimbal which were loose and now I am down to 1/2" or less of play. It is much, much better. On older Alphas there were nut/bolts that could be tightened on the gimbal and you had to grab both ends to tighten them. On The Bravo the deep ends seem to be embedded in the aluminum if the gimbal itself so you just have to grab the exposed end/nut and tighten. My question is how tight should I torque of these nuts? I am getting on it good now and it is working well so I would like to continue but I don't want to break anything. Any advice?
Thanks

[gcarter]

I read a post on this recently and it seems some specs say 50'#, but you shouldn't exceed 25-30'#'s.
It's a "U"-bolt that wraps around the gimbal. You don't want to break it.
The tiller gudgeon bolt could be loose also.

http://www.mercruiserparts.com/images/CRUISER/17721/7.png

[Pismo]

Thanks, I am sure I am at the limit. I will check bolt #19 next. Great diagram.

[Pismo]

I could see piece 14 in the gap and then move the drive by hand. The drive would move 2-3" and piece 14 would not move at all. Tightening that ubolt has helped. It is a weird setup. Tightening that ubolt basically bends the two pieces (up there it is split) of the gimbal together tightening it against piece #14, so lots of stress on that ubolt.

External Hydraulic is next.

[MOP]

You are tensioning two different things to the pin, the tiller and the gimble ring. You do need to get it apart and fix it, fairly big job but absolutely necessary. Once the pin starts to move around in the shield it get way expensive, from your description it has started to do that. There is a company that rebuilds the gimble for a fairly reasonable price, a fair amount of work but not to many dollars if you can do it yourself. This is one issue that hydraulic steering will not fix, sooner or later the seal and bushing goes, the housing gets screwed up and water is leaking in at a fair rate.

Phil

[BigGrizzly]

You may have the old tiller arm and need the p date. Actually the full external will fix the slop and strengthen th e gimble.

[MOP]

There is a very good chance the kit will work, it depends whether or not the pin has worn the bore in the gimble ring. If the bore is shot it will be a temp fix. Take a bright light look between the ring and the gimble you can see the but end of the pin, have someone work the wheel and watch to see how much motion there is now that you have tightened it. To me three inches before the cable moves is a bunch!

Phil

[Pismo]

You may have the old tiller arm and need the p date. Actually the full external will fix the slop and strengthen th e gimble.

Could you elaborate on "old tiller and need the up date"


Thanks

[MOP]

You need to check the play as I mentioned above, the pin is S/S IE: very hard the gimble ring is aluminum IE: soft. Once the pin starts to move within the bore of the gimble ring it wears quite fast, There is a kit that you can get to get it all apart with out removing the engine. The gimble if damaged which I feel it is can be sent to JR Marine they will weld the gimble and machine the bore back to new quite inexpensively well under the cost of new from Mercury. Do yourself a favor and check the pin as I described!

[BigGrizzly]

Ok the old ones like the Volvo had a spline or a squar shaft that was made too small. Part of the real problem is that the part needs to be tightened. by the time you notice it it is too late ans the fit is so loose that it won't get tight. Now the real reason the bearing goes bad.(you TRS guys the bearing is a needle so only the tiller goes bad MOST of the time) is the out drive is constantly fishtailing. I saw mine in a video when filming a Honda marine add-unbelievable. This puts a big pressure on the bearing and actually tilts the bearing. The twin ram hydraulic stops this so the force is forward and doesn't. When I first heard of this I though it was bull, now I am a believer. There was a service kit for the TRS which drilled the case for access and plugs to pop in the holes. BTW internal hydraulic does nothing to fix this. I am just biding my time to do the Corsican.

[Pismo]

Yes I have learned the way to go is to tighten the ubolt every fall for layup so that it never gets loose and wears away the aluminum bore. Wish I had done it. It is very tight again now so I bought a little time. They are moving as one again. I will see how it holds up this season.