replacing a worn gimbel shaft bushing or seal.

[pascavone]

If your leaking water from your "tiller" rod, this is the bar that connect to your power steering arm and to the outdrive, it usually means pulling the engine out, and then taking the whole gimble housing off the boat, right down to the fiberglass transom.

Or if you have play in your out drive, and you can rock it back and forth, because the upper and lower gimble ring is wore.

The other way to replace that pin is by drilling out the top of the gimbel housing, and making a knock out panel. This photo below shows a cut out that exposes the top nut on the top gimble ring pin. After you cut that hole, you can use a wrench to unbolt the pin, and drop it down. The lower gimble pin is always accessible.

You can buy a kit to do this, and it comes with a cover plate and gasket to cover then new hole when your done.

not sure its a good idea, but cheaper then pulling the engine.

[cunuck]

Sounds like a good plan to me I think merc did this to some of the older legs with a cover plate I have seen this before not sure where .

[jeffmeans]

Pascavone; This thread started out of nowhere it appears... can you tell me if this picture is one from YOUR boat?---or do you work in a boatyard where this is done often? I ask because I fear I'm headed the same direction; that of replacing the Gimbal Ring/Pin or whatever. I've heard of the $25 (+/-) "kit" Mercruiser sells to cut this hole, but I've never seen it actually DONE! I presume the next step in this process is to remove the entire gimbal ring and replace it?

Just curious about how this post got started, why you put this here, etc... elaborate if you would please, thanks!

[pascavone]

Ok Jeff you busted me......

My maxum 28scr saga is under this topic below:

I am replacing my engine coupler and while I'm there, replace the Gimble Ring, seals, bushing with new.

http://www.maxumownersclub.com/forum...coupler-myself

While walking my man-eating 6lbs. poodle for the neigbor watch, i spy my neigbor behind his 26 chapperal. He had out drive play in the drive, so he decided to go this "cut out" route to repair the gimble slop, and replace the bushing and gimbel pin without removing the engine. since is a older boat, its seamed like a logical plan, but I would not do it to my Maxum.

Its a stupid mercruiser design to have to pull the engine to get to the bolts for the gimble transom assembly, so I guess you have to decide the age and value of your boat before you decide which way to go.

[jeffmeans]

That dog looks fearsome!

We have almost identical boats, mine's a 2001 model year 2900 SCR, but has the 6.2L engine in it w/the Bravo III outdrive of course. MY problem is, I don't know bellows from gimbal rings from a gimbal pin to a gimbal BEARING! Not to mention I have no place to work on Endless Summer, even if I could recruit a friend to help. Just too cold here in the Pacific NW, and of the people I know who have a shop, I'm just not comfortable asking to use it for weeks or a month.

Gonna start "interviewing" local boat repair shops this Winter to see who is most-qualified to do this job... but pulling the engine seems so extreme to replace the sloppy gimbal ring I have (I agree the design by Merc sucks---this isn't the first time I've heard that). That cut-out kit Mercruiser sells was what I had thought of doing, but since Endless Summer's only got 375 hours on her (and is 12 years old) I'm starting to lean your way of doing the engine-yank method.

While I consider myself pretty handy, this procedure looks WAY out of my league! Any other thoughts/ideas you care to share would be appreciated... thanks Pascavone.

[pascavone]

A man got to know his limitation....... Clint Eastwood.....

A shop with a fork lift will unbolt the four engine mounts and pull the engine is 4 hours.

If it's something simple then they will not have to pull the engine, like a bellows or something.

But, the boat is 12 years, and it's worth doing right for another 12 years of service.

They will remove the mainfolds to pull the engine, so its a good time to just replace them if you have not for a while.

[jeffmeans]

I've got a lot of "play" in the outdrive (it sways back and forth without the steering wheel moving when she's on the trailer and the outdrive is down all the way---about 8-10 inches from port to starboard I'd estimate). The "sloppiness" really got worse after we hit what I presume was a dead-head in the water early last season. The half-sunken log acted like it got "caught" between the front of the outdrive and the transom... kind of "wedged-in" in an odd sort of way because it felt like the steering was "jammed" for a few seconds after I heard the "clunk". We were going pretty slow (5-6 knots) and heard this "clunk-clunk" sound. And in addition to the sloppy outdrive "floating" side-to-side, also what surfaced is a clicking sound after we hit this log. Now when we go slow, coming into the dock... and the steering wheel is turned, the clicking noise shows up. I've been told my U-Joints are what's causing that noise, because when you turn hard-over the noise disappears. It also disappears when the steering wheel is straight up at mid-point. And I think hitting this log also took out my trim sensor(s) too! The trim indicator needle on the dashboard gauge bounces all over the place now... so whatever the hell I hit, it rattled a bunch of stuff loose it appears.

Either way, I've got too many things wrong to fix by myself... I'll see what the local boatyards say---thanks again Pascavone.

[seapuppy]

dog.JPG[QUOTE=pascavone;20321



[/QUOTE]


we call those dogs "Cannon Cleaners"!!!.......just kidding....

well..if your getting alot of slop in the drive mounts..then the best thing to do is replace the transom mount...along with the bellows (age item) which comes with the gimbal bearings....also replacing the u-joint is relatively easy....the hard part is the transom mount....pulling an engine in a boat is something a yard does all the time...they can have one out in a matter of a few hrs...(don't ask how I know)...anyway....the thing to ensure the yard does is make the correct alignment of the engine ..otherwise your going to end up with a worn out gimbal bearing and u-joint again....
jeff...also have them check the drive out ...sometimes that impact can damage the outdrive leg gears......

SP

[jeffmeans]

Good info guys... as usual. Gonna be tackling this project in March it appears and will keep you posted on the project.

Thanks!

[pascavone]

i spoke to my marina mechinic and he told me about boats sinking, when the cover plate works off after aa year or so.... it would be easy to forget its down there, and the whole is big enought to flood the boat in an hour.