86 Mercury 3 cyl. 50HP play in swivel pin

[reelfishin]

I picked up a pretty clean looking 86 50hp, its got 137/138/135 compression, looks darn near new but the swivel pin has some play in it. I can rock it back and forth about a quarter inch at the lower unit.
What is involved in fixing this?
Simple bushing change?

The motor also has no tilt assist, no shocks, no power tilt.
Did someone remove the shocks or did some come without them?
I see where they would go on the bottom but there's no place up top for them to bolt on.

This is my first three cylinder Mercury so far, I've got a handful of older 4 cylinder motors.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: 86 Mercury 3 cyl. 50HP play in swivel pin

Bump

Anyone ever have one of these year Mercury motors apart?
Am I most likely looking at bushings or something major?

 

[mthieme]

Re: 86 Mercury 3 cyl. 50HP play in swivel pin

Are you sure it's the swivel pin as opposed to the lower mounts?

 

[reelfishin]

Re: 86 Mercury 3 cyl. 50HP play in swivel pin

The rubber mounts are new, the last owner had just put them in, the covers were off yet when I bought it. The pin has about 1/4" play in it. With the motor mounted, I can rock the motor back and forth and hear a solid clunk when changing direction. The rest of the motor is mint, so I'm sort of figuring a metal bushing or something must of fallen out or something, the motor don't look that used.

The play is the the point where the swivel pin goes into the bracket. There's a pretty good sized gap around the pin itself, as if something is missing.
I've looked at a few other Mercs of the same era or style and they too have a lot of play there but most were high usage motors.
It don't affect the running of the motor or the handling that I can detect, I just don't want to let it get out of hand if a simple bushing will fix it.There's also a lot of up and down movement, about 3/8" or so. Greasing the fittings makes it less noticable but it's not a fix.

 

[mthieme]

Re: 86 Mercury 3 cyl. 50HP play in swivel pin

I don't think there are any bushings in there. I just had a 402 apart and don't remember any. I remember it was a bear getting the pin back in because it was on a stand.
I have an '87 50 3 cyl on a stand...let me look at that when I get home later this afternoon.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: 86 Mercury 3 cyl. 50HP play in swivel pin

If there's no bushings, maybe I'll just make one? I can't imagine them letting the swivel pin ride right on aluminum casting though?