- Joined
- Mar 8, 2009
- Messages
- 40,721
First sorry someone got me thinking about an ongoing issue and need to bounce it off more folks
Currently there are two methods to repair the steering pinion and seal. The Merc method drills a hole on each side and installs plastic plugs to reseal. The JR Marine method cuts out a section on the rear of the assembly and installs a stainless steel plate.
My thoughts:
Merc uses plastic plugs and while there is less room it doing the steering pin replacement, there is no issue with corrosion due to dissimilar metals.
JR uses a stainless steel plate and screws, and allows a bit more room it doing the pin replacement, there appears to be issues due to corrosion and dissimilar metals.
So after the JT repair, one needs to keep an eye on stainless and aluminum being bonded together. I am assuming these differences can cause some serious issues later.
These comments all come from the last few folks which have had issues with the upper assembly corroding and causing a hole in the upper transom assembly. My additional thoughts was that anyone which has their boat in salt water needs to remove the decal on top the transom assembly. This decal can hold the salt behind it, IF the decal becomes loose from the upper plate
Currently there are two methods to repair the steering pinion and seal. The Merc method drills a hole on each side and installs plastic plugs to reseal. The JR Marine method cuts out a section on the rear of the assembly and installs a stainless steel plate.
My thoughts:
Merc uses plastic plugs and while there is less room it doing the steering pin replacement, there is no issue with corrosion due to dissimilar metals.
JR uses a stainless steel plate and screws, and allows a bit more room it doing the pin replacement, there appears to be issues due to corrosion and dissimilar metals.
So after the JT repair, one needs to keep an eye on stainless and aluminum being bonded together. I am assuming these differences can cause some serious issues later.
These comments all come from the last few folks which have had issues with the upper assembly corroding and causing a hole in the upper transom assembly. My additional thoughts was that anyone which has their boat in salt water needs to remove the decal on top the transom assembly. This decal can hold the salt behind it, IF the decal becomes loose from the upper plate
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