Bobby's Bravo Blues(Worn gimbal ring)

[GTStang]

So I got the boat out of winter storage and the marina in their prep pointed out how dangerously loose my steering had become. I noticed looseness when I first got the boat and tightened up the steering arm bolts cause the boat already had the holes with plugs in the transom assembly. It was better but still had some play. Now it had a ton of play ~3" and decided to bite the bullet and fix it.

Didn't take any video of the play unfortunately but here is pictures of what I started with:

 

[GTStang]

Weighed the options of replacing the whole transom assembly vs. fixing the gimbal ring. If I went the whole transom route I could not do the work myself as I did not have a good way to lift the engine plus I could not find any good used transom assemblies within a reasonable distance so I was looking at new around $1800 for the transom assembly before labor.

Do to this I decided to repair they one I had using JR's Marine method. Even though I already had the Mercury style side holes I sed messed with them once and it was horrible. Also the drilled tap holes were not done well and looked like frickin frankenstein! I've wanted to get rid of them so this was my chance.

So I had the pleasure of calling and talking to Ron Bender(awesome guy!) and order his plate kit and rented his special wrenches.

http://www.jrmarine.com/instructions.htm

Drive off and on shady homemade stand:


Hole cut for plate... no turning back now!


With the hole and Ron's wrenches undoing this stuff was pretty easy. Did have one issue were a piece broke below where it was suppose to, the plate covers it and should not be an issue but I'll fix it anyway:


Looking a little empty:

 

[GTStang]

So did I mention I hated those ****ing plugs on the side that made my transom look like Frankenstein?

Found some stainless washers that where almost the right sized beveled the washers and holes so they sat flush. Then used some marine JB weld epoxy stick and pressed it in from behind against the washer any that came through got it as flat as I could and make a good seal.





After giving the JB weld stick time to cure I followed it up with normal liquid JB Weld to make sure everything was sealed and give me something to try to sand down flat and make it look cosmetically nice. Also fixed the little piece that I mentioned that broke off that was lower than planned:

 

[Hack]

Boat surgery.... You're a brave man.

 

[GTStang]

So with everything out I examined the gimbal ring, swivel shaft and the steering arm on a table. Seems like the play is in the steering arm. The swivel shaft looks fine and so does the gimbal ring where the pin goes through. The gimbal ring shoe does have wear so the gimbal ring is going to JR Marine for him to fix that and inspect and fix anything else needed on the ring.

Top of the gimbal ring:


Sanded down the liquid JB Weld on the old holes trying to get a smooth surface. Still some high and low spots and don't want to use any ploy body fillers on something that is underwater so much. May just get it as flat as I can and call it good:



Also took the bellhousing and sanded off any corrosion and gave it a fresh rattle can job of Mercury Phantom black:

 

[sonicss31]

Looks good and you just saved yourself a bunch of $$$.

 

[GTStang]

Looks good and you just saved yourself a bunch of $$$.

Thanks, money saved yes but might use that "money saved" as justification to buy some other stuff

Interesting find as everything is torn apart... my bell housing has no hole/provision for the oil feed valve but my transom has a line for the oil feed but that has been cut. I'm just going to plug the line and put it back together as it was cause it works.

Also decided to go with newer style bravo decals just cause I like the way the look better than the 89 era ones:

 

[GTStang]

Want to reiterate how great Ron Bender at JR Marine is! He said other than the damage to the shoe my gimbal ring was ok and only charged me to fix that and put new bushings for the pivot pins with a 2 day turnaround. He could of easily said I need the swivel pin area repaired and cost me another $265 dollars.

So along with my R&R-ed gimbal ring I also got JR Marine's stainless swivel pin and high-strength u-bolt.



Ordered all the other parts I need to put it all back together. Also got all creative with the plate from JR Marine while I waited for the gimbal ring to come back.

 

[GTStang]

Hoping to get it done so I can use the boat for this 4th weekend got my butt in gear today.

Repaired gimbal ring, new steering arm, all new bushings washers etc.., installed. Everything is nice and tight and within tolerances.





Scrapped off the old decal sanded and prepped the upper transom area for paint.

 

[Overspray]

Looks like its coming together well. What is acceptable play and when does it get "dangerous"?

 

[GTStang]

Looks like its coming together well. What is acceptable play and when does it get "dangerous"?

So as far as I know there is no factory measurement/tolerance for side to side play. There is a tolerance between the washer on top of the gimble ring and gimble housing for the horizontal that should be .005-.007.

All I can tell you is my steering did some weird things last year and how I decided to measure so I could do least a before and after comparison. What I did was center the drive by eye and then move it one way till I saw the steering arm move then the other side. This takes cable slop out of play and focuses just on the steering arm, swivel shaft, gimbal ring.

When doing this I probably had ~3-4" of movement on each side from center before the steering arm would move. Right now the gimbal ring moves about 1/4" before the arms moves.

Created this to try to help explain/vizualize.

 

[Overspray]

Thanks for the great explanation. Mine was torn apart a few years back but nothing was replaced. Just trying to learn and take care of the routine stuff before it becomes major.

 

[GTStang]

Bailed on work today to try to get the boat done. Transom and rams repainted, bellhousing with new bellows and trim sensors installed. Time to get the drive back on!





The filled holes not perfect but came out ok and better than the frickin frankenplugs.

 

[GTStang]

Drive in place with new decals on applied. Plate test fit needs some more clearancing. Hope to have it all wrapped up tomorrow.



If you were observant and wondered why the studs for the drive are so long I decided to do an upgrade with the "saved" money.

 

[GTStang]

Back together and ready to test!!!!

Hopefully she doesn't leak...

 

[jazzbass]

Thanks for the great write up. Very informative.

If you got any of that saved money left looks like you should
treat yourself to a new prop.

 

[GTStang]

Thanks for the great write up. Very informative.

If you got any of that saved money left looks like you should
treat yourself to a new prop.

Haha you didn't even see the worse blade!!!! Use that one as a winter storage prop cause its so bad. Prop was change before I went out today.

Great sucess!!!! No leaks at all, the steering feel is great and the boat is way easier to handle.

Best of all.... the boat is definitely faster!!!

Going to enjoy it a few weeks like this then put on the rest of Mayfair external steering.

 

[Sam I am]

Stang,
Looking at that pic of your prop, you'll pick up more than a few miles per hour with a new wheel. It'll save on the vibes as well.
Sam

 

[GTStang]

Decided to update this even though there is no much between work and weather as I haven't had much time to work or take the boat out. Last time out I was having a problem with long duration 3/4 to full-throttle pulls and the motor cutting out completely. Doing some investigating in the driveway it looks like the fuel pump is not keeping anymore.

Went to order the stock Carter fuel pump and everyone who had it at a reasonable price was out of stock. The rest were a couple week back-ordered. So for the price I had to pay to get one of the Carter's now I said screw it I'll get one of them fancy bigger Holleys. I want to change the cam and run a blower long term anyway. So look to order an 80GPH marine Holley, what do you know everywhere it was reasonably priced backorder, 110GPH... same thing. Finally found the 130GPH Holley in stock for $30 more than I could get the stock Carter without waiting. Totally overkill but other than needing a regulator(which i run with stock pumps) no big deal.

So here is the mighty 130GPH Holley in all her glory!!!


Aren't you impressed!












J/K, here it is out of the box with the regulator I'm using and a whole mess of AN fittings since I secretly wanted to be a plumber as a kid apparently.



Got the old pump out today wasn't bad with the seat out.


Even with all those fittings I need to order a few more before I can get the new pump... Love working with AN

For those of you wondering...Yes I will part with finely crafted cut stock metal to rubber sleeved stainless with spectre fake AN hose clamp feed line but craftmanship of this level will cost you!

 

[GTStang]

So I got the fuel pump all hooked up and spent about an hour pouring gas down the carb and cranking the starter before I realized I put the lines on the pump backwards!

Luckily I was able to swap the lines without having to make news ones with a little creative routing. It has passed the driveway test but do to an issue today with with someone driving down the road with the boat keys sitting on the bumper of the truck... No runs on the water yet to see if the boat will stop cutting out on long full throttle runs.

Snapped a few pics today but not much to see as it's still a jungle of hoses, etc.., on mine.

Fuel Pump installed:


Billet deadhead regulator attached directly to 4150 hard feed-line. Not as clean a install as I wanted but already spent too much time and got too frustated to build a bracket to install it somewhere else. Might revisit it someday.


The feedline disappearing into the jungle oh hoses: