Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

pyrotek

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Nov 19, 2011
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183
I have a small leak on my Bravo 1 steering swivel shaft. Nut and bolt is a bit rusted and there's a pile of salt buildup. I pulled the engine to replace it. I was hoping I could get to the top nut of the swivel shaft from inside the boat, but the hull is cut out too low. I can either remove the exhaust pipe and entire transom assembly or I can attempt to cut out a little of the transom from inside to get to the nut. Which is recommended? I'm reluctant to keep taking things apart.

I also need to know if its advised to order new bushings and washers if I am replacing the swivel shaft? Can they be inspected and determined based on their condition, or is it advisable to replace the bushing when replacing the swivel shaft? Does anyone replace only the swivel shaft?
 

Fun Times

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Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

Hi there! You're better off installing a new one especially since you have salt build up.

You should be able to remove some of the transom to gain access to the nut.

These two long videos will be worth your time to watch as he gives you plenty of little tips to know about. And even a couple of things to check or move out of the way before starting a step procedure. :D

In the first video, starting at the 22:00 minute mark, he goes over/installs the bushing and seal.

Bravo 1 Extractor Bushing A

Hope this helps, Good luck.:)
 

Bondo

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Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

You should be able to remove some of the transom to gain access to the nut.

Ayuh,.... A die-grinder/ rotary tool, 'n an aggressive bit oughta get ya the space quickly, 'n easily,....
 

pyrotek

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Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

Any benefits to separating the transom assembly? Which way do most people end up doing this?
 

pyrotek

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Nov 19, 2011
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Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

I took a closer look this weekend and I don't think its possible to do this from inside with the inside transom assembly installed. It's not just the hull. There is very little room to get access to it. So I had to seperate the transom assembly from the hull which was not easy.

My current problem is the steering swivel shaft pin is seized in the gimbal ring. Here's what I've attempted so far:

- Used a punch to wack the top side of the pin. But can't get a good angle - about 45 degrees. No luck.

- I cleaned, re-tapped and threaded a 7/16-14 bolt into the bottom and made a puller out of a small 2x4 pulling against the upper gimbal ring. No luck. Maybe I should use a piece of steel but I'll probably put a large nick in the aluminum gimbal ring.

- Heated it twice with a butane torch. No luck.

- Set up a slide hammer to the bolt I just threaded in. No luck.

How am I going to get this out? Can I cut it in half between the gimbal ring and gimbal housing?

20140406_225714[1].jpg
 

pyrotek

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Nov 19, 2011
Messages
183
Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

see page 4B-6 the nut needs to be loosened/removed, the pinch bolt needs to be loosened
http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Servmanl/11/11b4r5x.pdf

Top nut is loose. Has about 1/8" room to slide down if it wanted to. U-bolt is also loose. After unclamping the steering lever, the lever is not seized in any way, but that's probably because it didn't see the same amount of salt water the steering pin did.
 

Fun Times

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Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

Have you started soaking it with PB blaster?

That's a pretty solid shaft, it may be difficult to cut. (Never done it so i'm not sure)

Are you installing a new ring as well?

Bigger slide hammer??? This may be harder to do with the transom assembly out of the boat now.

Did the videos help you any?

Keep at it, you will get it. Good luck.:)
 
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pyrotek

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Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

Day #2 still can't get it out. Replaced the wood with 1/8" thick steel plate and now were just bending the plate. It seems most people have loose steering. I don't have that problem, I just had a slight leak. Now that makes sense since the pin is essentially seized to the gimbal ring. The top of the gimbal ring is split and should unclamp to loosen its hold against the pin. We've been using plenty of PB Blaster. I'm not replacing the gimbal ring.

Today's idea was to remove the lower swivel pin to start rocking the entire gimbal ring against the top pin and hopefully loosen the bond. So now we discovered two pins we can't remove! Lower pin is also seized.

Can the lower pin be punched out from the top and the bottom?

Do you think there is a risk I can crack the gimbal ring or transom assembly with threaded pullers? I don't know how much force cast aluminum can take. Does it bend at all, or just crack?

The butane torch just can't heat up this amount of metal. Would an acelytene torch help, or is it to dangerous and I could just ruin it?
 

Fun Times

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Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

So now we discovered two pins we can't remove! Lower pin is also seized.

Can the lower pin be punched out from the top and the bottom?

Do you think there is a risk I can crack the gimbal ring or transom assembly with threaded pullers? I don't know how much force cast aluminum can take. Does it bend at all, or just crack?

The butane torch just can't heat up this amount of metal. Would an acelytene torch help, or is it to dangerous and I could just ruin it?
The lower pin is designed to go downwards to remove it. You can go up some if needed but down to remove it is the correct way. The cast aluminum material will break easily if hitting on it to hard.

There is a way to cut out the lower pin in two spots. The guy on the first video tells you all about it. Have you watched the first video yet??? 17:00 minutes + you'll want to see.
Boatinfo - Mercruiser Service Manual nr. 39 - 2006-Up Bravo Drives And Boatinfo - Mercruiser Service Manual nr. 39 - 2006-Up Bravo Drives to install the lower pin.

The acetylene torch will help you get the results your looking for.
 

pyrotek

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Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

Success! I got the top pin out! Here's how I did it...

The original steel I was using was simply bending and not giving enough force. The entire trick is to get the puller to pull against the gimbal ring as close as possible to the pin. To far away and I was just bending steel. It would have been even better to get a giant pipe coupler to fit around the 1.5" pin. You would have to grind out to attempt to match the shape of the gimbal ring since where the slit is protrudes out a bit. I also learned that the cast aluminum is extremely hard and I put only a very small dent in it.

20140409_204224.jpg


Once I started really torqueing down, I snapped the 7/16" threaded rod. I got a new piece and figured I was going to snap it again. If that happened I was going to bring it to a machine shop to get it milled out. But after turning a little more, another POP. Figured I snapped the bolt and started removing it and then realized it was still in one piece. I looked and there was a tiny hairline fracture between the bolt and gimbal ring!

I continued pulling until I bottomed out the plate. I then went to a bigger plate, but I just started bending the plate.

20140409_215235.jpg


Even when it was half way out, I was able to turn it almost as hard as I could with a regular size wrench with no cheater bar (to give you an idea of how much force).

20140409_215926.jpg

I did an experiment and tried the 5lb slide hammer - didn't move. Threaded puller wins over the slide hammer. I assume this to be also true of gimbal bearings if anyone is struggling with getting that out.

I finalled wedged some other pieces of metal in there and got it to pull all the way out.

I didn't realize I now have to pull the bottom pin out to completely remove the gimbal ring to be able to pull the bushing out. Since I'm replacing the seal, I figured it would be best to replace the bushing. Let me know if someone disagrees and thinks I should just leave the bushing alone. I highly doubt that is going to come out with just a slide hammer as the manual states. I think I'm going to build another puller for this one, but is more difficult. I may decide to cut it as JRmarine states but not sure how difficult it is to cut.

Thanks for the encouragment!
 
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pyrotek

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Nov 19, 2011
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Re: Bravo Steering Swivel Shaft Replacement

Just to finish up my story (for the archive searchers) here is how I removed the lower swivel pin...

I was worried about the gimbal housing ears bending and breaking by clamping onto both ears and pressing against the pin. After some light pressing, I opted to cut the swivel pin with a sawzall. This pin is a soft material and was easy to cut through in about 30 seconds at slow speed. Move the gimbal ring up and down and you should have about 1/4". I barely nicked the ring and gimbal housing.

Then I had to press each side out. I used a fine pitch 5/8" threaded press and turned as hard as I could with a standard length socket wrench. Still wasn't moving. I then tapped sideways on the pin with a punch (from the cutout section) and POP! Then just some took work to press it all the way out.

20140412_220936.jpg


So after all that and me not destroying my gimbal housing, I have decided to replace the entire gimbal housing due to corrosion. I don't think I can remove the lower bushing around the upper swivel shaft. If I did, I don't know if it would ever properly seal (the whole point of this exercise!). My water inlet was nearly corroded through, although I think would last for at least a few more years. Lastly the side of the gimbal has a few pits that are pretty close to breaking through.

So I had to order a new gimbal housing. Instead of getting ripped off for just the housing $1700 :eek: I ordered a complete assembly for not much more. Each piece is much less when buying the entire aseembly together as opposed to buying parts individually. Since my ring and gimbal are in good shape, I'm going to remove the ring and gimbal and sell the brand new ring and gimbal. I'll also have a new OEM upper swivel pin (not stainless) and hinge pins. I already purchased a bellows kit last year, so I may also have a new set of untouched bellows and a gimbal bearing. If anyone's interested PM me.

My boat is 97 with ~600 hours in salt. If anyone is up against the same thing in the same conditions, I would expect the worst. I regret pulling this apart. I should have left it until the leak got a lot worse.
 

pyrotek

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Nov 19, 2011
Messages
183
So I'm back at it again. New boat, researching how to pull a steering pin out of a gimbal housing. Trying to remember the disasembly/install procedure - and my own thread comes up as one of the most helpful. So I thought I would follow up on it. Yes it's a 6 year old thread, but it's mine and related so get over it :)
wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==


So this time I buy a much newer boat - a 2008 with twins. When looking at the boat, there is water in the bilge and the steering pin is pretty badly rusted. Out of all people you would think I would know what that means and would steer clear! Nope, I buy for quite a lot of money. And after 1 year of constant water in the bilge I've had enough.

I will give one tip that I tried this time which really helped. To find the source of the leak we shop vac'd all the water out of the bilge - bone dry. Then I picked up a cheap borroscope camera on amazon and found the drip coming off the bottom of the Y-pipe. Still not easy to determine root cause. I would have a drip every 5 seconds continuously. Then I took a paper towel, folded it up and dried up the water under the steering arm. After it was dry, I took a 2nd paper towel, folded it up and left it between the steering arm and top of gimbal housing. Within 60 seconds the paper towel was drenched. During the 60 seconds, my borroscope showed the drip stop. As soon as the paper towel was saturated the leak started again. So my suggestion is to use a paper towel to determine if your steering pin is leaking. You don't necessarily even have to watch for a drip, just see if the paper towel is wet after initially drying the area up.

Now how is it that a 10 year old boat (in salt) has two transoms leaking! While I thought about it last time, I have learned my lesson good this time. No more Mercruiser. I hate to say it since I'm so familiar with the design and now have quite some experience, but it's just a terrible design. The fact that Mercury uses a steel pin that costs $393 when they have a stainless pin that costs $406 - that's $13 more! But that's exclusive to their Seacore which no one uses. After this terrible design, you think they would accept a $13 increase in manufacturing cost for a part that is near impossible to get out. Any of course outboards just plain don't have these parts due their simpler design. I hope I learn my lesson for next boat.

Ok enough of my rant. Here's what I'm doing. I pulled engines, transom assembly off. I went in expecting to have a terrible time pulling the pin out again. Instead the top nut was incredibly difficult to get off. I was wacking the end of the 1-1/16" wrench with a 5 lb hammer, wouldn't budge. Eventually ended up putting a puller between the wrench and the steering arm (with it still clamped tight). That moved it!

photo323960.jpg

The next thing I did was to pull the bushing out. Technically I never did this before since it was at this point I realized my last housing was junk. So I pulled the seal out on the bottom of the bushing with a flat head screwdriver. Then based on what I read, I found a socket and started bashing the bushing upwards with a hammer. Wasn't moving. I could tell I was mangling the bushing and/or the housing. Eventually I took a punch and hit it. Once I got to the 3 or 9 oclock position the bushing just split apart and came loose. The point is the bushing has a seam which is supposed to be installed at 3 or 9 oclock position. DO NOT USE A SOCKET! Get a sharp punch and just hit at the side to split the bushing. I near ruined the housing on the 1st one. The 2nd one came out beautifully.

After the bushing was out I could see some pretty bad corrosion at the top of the bushing. I started picking at it with a screwdriver and ate through a little of the housing where the seal sits. Because of this, I am not 100% confident the seal will be 100% water tight. It probably would be, but for the work and cost of pulling the engines, transom assembly out I decided its not worth it. Unfortunately the rest of the housing was perfect shape, just the area around the seal and bushing.






I don't understand how everyone is using the JR kit to replace the steering pin. I'm now 0 for 3 and need to replace the housing every time.
 

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Bt Doctur

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Aug 29, 2004
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19,093
While its apart ,install the missing grease fitting
click to enlarge
 
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