Steering play
 

Having put my boat in for a engine & outdrive service, I got a call to say there is a problem with the transom. Something about a square peg that goes into a square hole getting rounded and causing play in the steering and that I could lose steering completely at any moment. I'd like to know how likely this is as I am told the repair means taking the engine out and I dont want to lose the boat for the rest of the season if I can wait till the winter to get it repaired.

I have noticed for some time that there is a little play in the steering but nothing alarming and it doesnt seem to be getting much worse. Should I risk it?

Re: Steering play
 

We just had to fix this same problem. You deffinitly have to take the engine out to fix it, and it is deffinitly something that should be fixed. When i did my research on this problem, I found that people have had the "gimbal ring" (which is the part that is worn out) crack, loosing all steering.

We noticed we could not turn right very well. We could turn left just fine, but turning right would take forever. We also noticed that when hammering down the throttle, our back end would get very shakey, and when we moved the outdrive back and forth while trailered, we had around 8 inches of play before the wheel would turn, and this was like that for a whole season before we realized it was a problem, the outdrive should have little to no play before it turns the wheel.

In my opinion, I think you will be ok for the rest of the season, but i take no responsibility for telling you that:) We were lucky and had the problem for a whole season with no issues, but I can't say that is normal.

I did the work myself to replace the gimbal ring, but it takes a long time, and still cost alot of money, because while you're in there, you might as well replace a few other items like gimbal bearings, bellows, shift cables, sending units, and anything else that might be worn out, and easy to get too while the engine is out.

I will say, make sure it is repaired at the latest over the winter, and, if you are in colorado, I could quote out the time, labor and parts to do it in my shop. (I speciliaze in electrical, but now have all the tools for this repair.)

When we took our boat back out after this repair, we were amazed at the difference. We could turn, we had a better hole shot (oddly enough) and we actually are getting much better fuel economy, and i have no Idea why! Plus trailering and general manuvering are much nicer!


Let us know how it goes!

recelect