The Mariah Owners Club - Replacing Gimbal Ring on Shabah

So I just wanted to Make a post on replacing a gimbal ring on a 1998 Z212 Shabah because of everything I learned this weekend doing it myself. And let me start by saying that the mercrusier engineers deserve a punch in the face!:)

Anyway, so we noticed our boat would turn left very well, but we could not turn right sharply. We also noticed when we really mashed the throttle, the back end got very squirrly. So, out of the water the boat came, and sure enough, our drive unit moved back and forth almost 12 inches. It was more than wore out.

I am very mechanically inclined, and would much rather do all the repairs myself, so I went searching for the tools, and the advice to do it. Unfortunately I didn't find any advice about someone specifically doing this repair on a Shabah, which is why I am writing this post. Although all alpha one gen II drives are the same, not every boat is.

I first found that nobody is making a "kit" that comes with everything needed for replacement, like gaskets, bellows, etc which is kinda annoying. It is also a little difficult to make sure you’re getting the correct ring.

I also found that there are 2 ways to complete the repair. 1. Drill holes in the alpha one gimbal housing or 2. pull the motor and access everything from the inside of the boat. Wanting to make this easy, my first instinct was to not pull the motor. This does not work on a Shabah. With the way the hull is designed, the only way to drill a hole in the housing, is to have a 90 degree drill, and even if you do get the hole drilled, You can't see into it because of the rear swim deck being in the way. Plus, they want you to take a punch and drive out the top nut by tapping on it. It is a nyloc nut, with no room to swing a hammer, and you have to get it back on while pushing the steering shaft through and aligning it correctly which I think would be impossible! so I nixed the "easy" way and was on to way number 2

Fortunately, I have an engine alignment tool, hinge pin tool, bellows expander tool, a forklift, and everything I needed to pull the motor. Pulling the motor is not bad, but having to take out all the interior around it kind of sucks.

I pulled the motor, and thought, great, lets get the one stupid nut off, and throw in the new ring.

Wrong! IN the service manual, they say to stick a wrench through the transom and turn the nut. Well, the Shabah wood and fiberglass were cut in a way that made this impossible to do. If we had a wrench less then a 1/4 inch thick, we might have been able to do it, but my suggestion is spend the time and remove the gimbal housing. Then you can work on it on the bench.

once we took the gimbal housing off, we changed the gimbal ring (which no matter what would have been difficult as hell if it was on the boat, and you would have to have another person that is mechanically inclined to help) the new ring and new shaft feel amazing in the housing, and finally it is time to put everything back together.

So, the gimbal housing went back on, hooked up all our lines to the housing, and finally started to drop the motor. first try, the motor went back in smooth as butter, and lined up without any adjustment (to my complete surprise). When we went to put the rear bolts in they didn't tighten, and we looked and looked, and finally found 2 nylock nuts that needed to be in a small pocket on the gimbal housing that the rear bolts thread into (they fell out when we took the housing off). Unfortunately, the mercrusier engineers were not on their game that day and made it so you cannot get the nuts into their pockets with the motor in place. So we pulled the motor back up, put in the nuts, and then promptly spent 1.5 hours trying to get the engine to re-align with the mounts and with the engine alignment tool. What a pain and frustrating afternoon, all because they couldn't make the nut stay put, or drill and tap the housing, or be able to replaced with the motor in place.

Now the motors is in, aligned and ready to be hooked back up. I still have to bleed lines, hook up trim, water, fuel and electric and then put the sterndrive back on, but those items are simple.

All in all, I don't understand why Mercrusier didn't make a removable plate on there gimbal housing where they put the serial number. if that was removable, none of this would have had to been done, and this repair would have taken far less time.

My suggestions to anyone looking to do this:

Do not try the "cutting hole" method that you will find. It does not work on the Shabah because of space, and I think it would be hard on any boat trying to work in those little holes.

Be prepared to take out the motor, and gimbal housing.

Be prepared to replace more parts then just the gimbal ring, cause if you're in there, you might as well.

have 3 good friends be willing to help you out. It is helpful when you lift the motor out and help guide everything back in.

This is not a laid back, drink bear and eat pizza kind of weekend job. It takes a lot of time to do.
And finally, be prepared to want to buy a plane ticket to mercrusier so you can "punch an engineer in the face". as by the time you're done, you will have asked yourself "Who in the hell designed, and got away with this!!!" In reality we had to remove the entire drive system for 1 freaking nut...

Oh, and if you plan on having it done, it will be expensive. Very expensive, and they are not lying when they say they have to pull the motor...

Hopefully this will help anyone looking to do this repair.

Good luck and happy boating!