How do I replace friction discs on swivel bracket assembly (1985 Merc 9.8)

[Dekker500]

I'm relatively new to boating and outboards, having recently purchased a 12' aluminum boat and a 1985 Mercury 9.8HP (S# 0A707616).

Now that I've gotten it on the water a couple times to test and tune the engine, I noticed the co-pilot was loose. Back in the garage, I started tightening and tightening, until I noticed that there was no contact between the friction plate and the clamp plate - it seems the friction discs are missing! (part #20203)

My Clymer service manual does not deal with this part...

How do I go about installing new friction discs, item 7 (assuming I can get them)? I can see the upper two discs are on the clamp plate (item 6), and I think I can remove the adjuster screw to remove that clamp plate, but how do I access the friction discs that are below the friction plate (item 4)?

 

[Sea Rider]

By friction discs are you reffering to the swivel's steering upper and lower shaft bushings, or stern (side) bracket bushings. Not even with a magnifying glass was able to locate item 6-7 to small pic. If firstly will probably need to remove power head off pan,complete lower leg, including gear upper shaft to pull swivel bracket off.

Happy Boating

 

[Dekker500]

Let's try this pic again... see below.

Not really a shaft bushing.

Apologies to eBay for re-using their photo... but the part that is missing are the four black discs seen below.

 

[Chinewalker]

Yep, it will involve a pretty thorough break down of the motor. Powerhead off, exhaust adapter/lower pan off, saddle bracket out, etc. Lot of work for two little rubber bits...

 

[Dekker500]

I was afraid of that...

Due to laziness (or is that just practicality?) I will get out a good flashlight and a feeler (aka thin screwdriver) and see if the lower friction discs are still there. Seeing how hard it is to remove these things, I'm hoping the lower ones are still there, and I can just slide upper ones into place with the adjustor screw removed. The top ones are definitely missing, and I may just learn to live without it...

 

[Dekker500]

As a quick update, it appears the friction discs below the friction plate are still there. It is just the upper friction discs that are missing. Previous owner probably removed the adjustor screw completely, and lost the discs. Oh well.

 

[Dekker500]

Just wanted to close up this thread... Posting my solution for posterity's sake.

How to replace the upper friction discs on tiller autopilot

I special-ordered these discs from a local Mercury dealer. They were ~$7.25 each, and I had to buy the entire bag of 5. Why do they package them in sets of 5, when the boats only use 4, I can't figure. I had to buy the entire bag because the dealer wouldn't have any use for the rest of the discs anyway. But that's life.

As mentioned earlier, I only needed to replace the two discs directly under the clamp plate. The two under the friction plate were still there and appeared OK.

I backed off the bolt (#8 in the pic above), and had to keep the motor turned to starboard to allow the bolt to rise enough to free the clamp plate (#6). I then just slid out the plate, cleaned the top and bottom surfaces of the friction plate (#4 in the pic) with a rag then with brake cleaner I sprayed on a rag then on the plate (spraying the plate directly could strip paint and cause other problems - don't do it!).

Re-assembly was a bit of a puzzle. The two friction discs have small posts that fit into the clamp plate holes. The problem is the discs are attached UNDER the clamp plate, and fall out as you try to squeeze the parts and your fingers through the transom mount before they can rest on the friction plate. Solution: take a tiny scrap of paper (1/4" long x 1/8" wide) strip of paper, place it over the hole, then push the friction disc into the hole. The added pinch provided by the paper is enough to hold the disc in place as it is turned upside down. The paper will eventually wear away, whereas using grease could cause problems.

Once the discs were secured, I could easily slide the clamp plate with discs through the transom mount and align it above the friction plate, line up the bolt with the nut welded into the clamp plate, and tighten it up.

Wow, what a difference. I adjusted it so it was stiff to move, whereas it was rather free-turning before - I could never let go of the tiller for fear of having it turn hard and dump us passengers! First test will be later this week... But looks like everything is good to go.