Upper Gimbal Swivel Pin

1132MM

Member
Aug 1, 2010
184
Wantagh, NY
Boat Info
2004 Sea Ray 280 Sundancer
Engines
Twin 4.3 Liter Mercruiser w/Alpha One Gen 2 Drives
Anyone know of a good replacement for the Gimbal swivel pin for an Alpha one Gen 2. Most online sites are between $350-$400.

upload_2020-4-19_21-40-54.jpeg
 
Have a very nice used pin and steering arm if interested
pm a cell , call tomorrow
 
Can you send pics of them?
 
Do NOT use the steel pin! They rust and tear up the small rubber seal (kind of like o-ring). It will leak water in and start rotting the gimbal housing (if in salt water). Bt Doctur knows this better than anyone! Why would you suggest a used pin?
MerCruiser Steel Pin: 98230A1 $370
MerCruiser Stainless Pin: 866718A01 ~$400
If going OEM, $30 difference is a no brainer.

Also see the JR marine stainless pin and Nuwave aftermarket versions. I just installed two Nuwave aftermarket pins (3rd total). I have three brand new OEM 98230A1 from the new transom assemblies I've purchased and converted to stainless. Parting out what I do not need from the new transom assemblies. If you insist, I'll sell one for cheap. They are brand new, but I still prefer you buy the stainless.
 
Just did this today on a Bravo with the JR ss pin kit. Also added a couple grease zerts to both bushing on it.
Edit: Got it from Nuwave
 
Thanks I appreciate the info!
 
Just in case you needed more convincing...
Here is my 11 year old steering pin (salt water in the NE). Realize the area marked with the blue arrow indicates where the fixed seal installed in the gimbal housing rides on. The seal in this picture is new for illustration purposes. The old seal was completely chewed up and destroyed.

steering-pin.jpg
 
Hey gents. This is a winter project of mine. I have small leaks and my steering pins are rusted. Replaced bellows and gimbal bearings last winter. Any advice would be helpful. Do you have links for the kits? Thanks!
 
Hi Mdolesh, First be 100% certain you have a leak at the steering pin by shoving two paper towel under the steering pin and on top of the flat shelf of the transom assy housing. The first to dry it out, then the second to see how much water accumulates in a minute or two.

A lot of people on the forums have good luck with the JR marine openings in the transom assy housing. I've never gone this way. Personally I'm surprised so many people have good luck with this since access is still very tight. I have opted to remove 3 engines (on 2 different boats) and disconnect the entire transom assembly from the transom. In all cases, things were so corroded, it took enormous force to loosen the steering arm bolts and pull the pin out. I couldn't imagine doing this with such little access - but again I've never tried this route. On all 3 transom assemblys I found significant corrosion and was not comfortable putting it back together. One had corrosion on the water inlet that just totally crumbled apart. The next two (on my 290DA) there was some minor corrosion around where the seal sits around the steering pin. I was replacing the seal, but was concerned the cast aluminum housing still could have leaked around a new seal. If I was doing this through the small JR opening, I probably wouldn't have access to even notice the corrosion. My guess is it probably would have been fine, but I wanted to be safe.

One difference between your situation is I needed to replace bellows anyways, so buying a new transom assembly came with factory installed bellows.

Two new transom assys were quite expensive and unless I got the even more expensive SeaCore version, it does not come with a stainless steering pin. Mercruiser OEM cost for the stainless pin is only $10 more than the steel version which is $350!!? Completely insane decision by Mercury for a common part that fails and requires huge labor costs to fix. They have no intention of improving their designs.

So I purchased a new transom assy, took it all apart, replaced it with a $100 Nuwave stainless pin, put my old gimbal ring and bell housing on and sold the new parts for 50% of the new transom assys. But beware some parts you are better not ever touching in the first place. For example, one of my bell housings stripped, so I ended up having to use the new one and not selling that. It was a ton of work though, and probably not the way most people would go! Much easier to just buy the whole transom assembly and slap it on the boat!

So you could always start with the JR approach. If you can't get the nuts off the steering arm, then you have to remove engine anyways.

Instructions for JR marine access plate:
http://www.jrmarine.com/instructions.htm
 
Well, I have access to a full machine shop, so I took mine off, welded the worn sides out, and machined them back down to the correct size. Total cost = only my time :). If I were to do it again, I'd source a stainless pin. There are several horrible design choices in the Merc setup, and the damned swivel shaft is one of them. Their method for drilling the holes in each side of the transom assembly and taking it apart with a chisel/screwdriver and a hammer would probably be the worst decision they made. I bought the kit where you cut the hole in the face of the assembly, and put a plate over the hole when you're done for the next one I did. Much better than Merc's method.
 
JR Marine is the way to go. You can get a full size open end on that nut. Haven't had a problem yet. Easy enough to check the bore the seal fits in as well.
 
Thanks guys! I will start with the paper towel inspection and see what I come up with. The survey on the boat last year when we bought it said "STEERING SYSTEM Steering tie bar: 2. Well mounted with rudder steering arms connected by a steel lateral bar. The steel lateral bar is very rusty, Inside the engine room, the steering arm that is attached to the lateral steering rod and goes to the outdrive(s) is/are very rusty and the starboard one is deteriorated." Just to clarify...the starboard steering arm ISNT really deteriorated, just heavy rust. Does this sound like the same issue? If so...would you guys pull the engines or do the JR kit? And if pulling engines, what would your "to-do" list be when you had them out? I know its a several part question but I am a nube and not familiar with I/O stern drives at all. Thanks again!

This was also in the inspection - Backdown: Water leaking from the transom while doing the back down test from portside mostly, and water was laying on the steering arm shelf on both sides.
 
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Hard to see that picture since I can't enlarge it, but from what I can tell, this looks roughly the same as my 2008 290 did last year. The shelf they are referring to is directly below that steering arm. It looks nearly identical to mine.

While engines were out, I was able to acid wash the entire transom inside the engine room to remove all rust stains. Replaced the fire extinguisher bracket and trim pump mount brackets with stainless steel brackets. Technically these can be done with the engines installed, just more difficult for access.

I needed a threaded steering wheel puller between the wrench and the steering arm with a 1.5 ft wrench turning the puller to get the bolt off the steering pin. It was crazy how much force was needed. Here is more detail of my removal with pictures:
https://forums.iboats.com/threads/bravo-steering-swivel-shaft-replacement.619869/post-4567530
 
Why are the U-bolts nuts still on? It's steel in aluminum, shouldn't be that difficult. Torch would have been helpful.
 
The u-bolt was backed off and not tight. The second time for my 290DA the nuts were completely removed. The U-bolt cannot be removed until the pin comes out and the gimbal ring is seperated.

Take a look at the condition of the pin in the posts earlier. Rust can be incredibly difficult to break free. And there is quite a lot of surface area. I only have Butane torch available which didn't do anything. But overall the experience with the recent 290 wasn't too bad. The first time doing this, was much more difficult, maybe because of inexperience, but I think also it was more corroded.

One other thing point for mdolesh that I just recalled: The steering tie-rod bar was also rusted to the steering arm such that the clevis pin would not come out. I had to cut the pin out with a sawzall once I had the engines out. Make sure you can get that pin out with the engines in. I fabricated a new tie-rod bar out of 316 which is nice and shiny now - but that was a project in itself.
 
Just in case you needed more convincing...
Here is my 11 year old steering pin (salt water in the NE). Realize the area marked with the blue arrow indicates where the fixed seal installed in the gimbal housing rides on. The seal in this picture is new for illustration purposes. The old seal was completely chewed up and destroyed.

View attachment 83211
I'm about to make a puller tool like yours, do you know the thread-type? I've found out it's a 3/8 size.. Mines a bit corroded so I can't test because nothing gets in right now. I'm thinking about buying the correct size tap and retap in the original threads, but I want to buy the right one...
 

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