muskyfins
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2012
- Messages
- 580
While starting planning for this year's boat fixes, I came across the dreaded worn gimbal ring to steering arm shaft issue on my Bravo outdrive. Notably, the square steel shaft, wears the square bore in the aluminum gimbal ring. I haven't taken the time to measure the amount of play or size of the gap yet. The U-bolt and nuts should have been maintained by the PO every year per Mercruiser torque spec of 50 ft pounds. But it wasn't. It is my understanding that once there is more than "normal" slop between the two, that tightening will require excessive travel of the slotted area and cause the ring to snap. I am aware of the correct means to fix-remove gimbal ring and send for repair or replace. I would like to put this off until the fall if possible when I could remove the entire transom assembly, do the bellows, etc. And I'm aware of several methods to do this without removal including Mercruiser's plug kit and others.
My questions are if any of you have experience with #1, just how likely it is that the ring breaks if tightening is attempted? I have heard several folks on other forums say they snapped well below 50 foot pounds. If I were to try this, I would remove the nuts, clean the threads and tighten in 5 foot pound increments from 30, then 35, then 40 etc to 50 foot pounds. But it would really ruin my day to hear snap around 42 foot pounds. Also, I have read that even if it doesn't snap while tightening, the additional strain can cause a break later during operation. That would probably suck even more!!
#2 Do any of you have experience with shimming? I ran across the thread linked below, on another forum. Having experience building and designing equipment, this actually seems preferable over simply tightening because it would avoid the strain on the aluminum. As to strength, a wedge is a very strong connection. The hook of a crane is held in place by a tapered wedge in a fitting against the cable.
I've tried to be thorough, but inevitably I leave out some piece of info, so I apologize in advance for that. But trust me it's all very clear in my head. Thanks as always for the excellent advice here.
My questions are if any of you have experience with #1, just how likely it is that the ring breaks if tightening is attempted? I have heard several folks on other forums say they snapped well below 50 foot pounds. If I were to try this, I would remove the nuts, clean the threads and tighten in 5 foot pound increments from 30, then 35, then 40 etc to 50 foot pounds. But it would really ruin my day to hear snap around 42 foot pounds. Also, I have read that even if it doesn't snap while tightening, the additional strain can cause a break later during operation. That would probably suck even more!!
#2 Do any of you have experience with shimming? I ran across the thread linked below, on another forum. Having experience building and designing equipment, this actually seems preferable over simply tightening because it would avoid the strain on the aluminum. As to strength, a wedge is a very strong connection. The hook of a crane is held in place by a tapered wedge in a fitting against the cable.
I've tried to be thorough, but inevitably I leave out some piece of info, so I apologize in advance for that. But trust me it's all very clear in my head. Thanks as always for the excellent advice here.
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