Stainless Steel Swivel Pin for Bravo

[JIm Cook]

Can anyone advise on the use of the stainless<br />swivel pin that I see at hillmarine.com.<br />Seems like a no brainer and it is priced<br />less than OEM part 98230A1.I have a broken gimbal<br />ring and need to replace swivel pin too because of <br />pitting around the seal area of the pin.Gimbal<br />ring broke into three peices at the corners of the square hole on top.<br />Could I have caused this by over torqueing the u-bolt in an attempt to remove steering play?<br />96 Bravo III, 7.4L, fresh water, 24' Mariah.<br />800 hrs. since purchased new.<br />No serious problems until coupler splines wore<br />to a "pointy" wear pattern and required replacement, and now this.

 

[Don S]

Re: Stainless Steel Swivel Pin for Bravo

Hate to tell ya, but yes, overtorquing the U bolt is what breaks the Gimbal ring. There are lots of places that can cause slop in steering on boats. Boats however, are not like cars and the steering is not real positive with cable steering, and there is slop between the wheel and the drive due to lots of things. I have no info on the other swivel pin, but the Merc one is also stainless. That is not something made of regular ole carbon steel.<br /><br />As far as your coupler goes, failure to lube the zirks on the coupler per specs and having the alignment out of specs are what causes coupler failure. The alignment should be checked at least yearly to make sure something hasn't gone bad, and the Mercruiser rear mounts are a constant problem for the owners. Makes a lot of money for us marine techs, but heII for the owners.<br />Replacing the coupler and leaving a worn splined shaft on the drive will also take out a new coupler. Was you shaft checked/replaced when the coupler was?<br /><br />Here is a link to an online OEM MErcruiser Bravo service manual you might want to have a look at.<br /><br /> http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Servmanl/11/11covr5x.pdf