Transom housing/gimbal rings

paulsivert

06 342 with 500 hours
My mechanic has told me that my transom housing is leaking and needs to be replaced, and that the gimbal rings are 'bad' and therfore I may have a pontential steering problem.  I knew that the transom housing was leaking and bilge pump seems to handle this problem.  Do you know if I can have the gimbal ring problem fixed independent of the transom problem?    The quote for these repairs is $10,000.  Have you had to have this work done on your boat and does seem like a fair price quote?  Paul

Black_Diamond

Doing (2) gimbal rings will set you back since they will want to pull the engines to do both no doubt.  What do you mean the transom housing is leaking?  Usual suspects are the gimbal ring/steering pin for the Bravo III and then bellows.  Letting water leak and relying on the bilge pump is a bad, bad bet, let alone if you get moisture into the transom/hull.  Get a second quote for the work and what will be done. 

frenchship

Paul,
is it the transom housing that is leaking or the steering shaft, on my boat I was told that the housing was leaking and after a good trouble shooting it turn out it was the steering shaft which could  be replace lot cheaper .I would definitely recommend a second opinion. And yes the gimbal could be fixed independently.
I bought all the special tools to do mine (steering shaft, gimbal bearing ,bellows ,
gimbal bushing ) and all the necessary parts for about 2000$ U.S for both sterndrives.
Paul

Tietsort

My steering shafts are leaking. Is that fixed from the inside ( pull engines ) or outside ( off with the outdrives) ?

frenchship

Most dealer will tell you that the motors has to be remove to replace the steering shafts big money . But it can be done from the outside take a look at jrmarine.com and their video call
gimbal rings video 
lot of peoples had good result with their products. Their stainless steel shaft is a bit expensive their are some available on e-bay 
Paul

paulsivert

Thank you for your comments I'm still conducting the research that's been suggested.  Paul

Babyboomer

Just ran across this
http://www.ghrkits.com/

kneedeep

Both my steering pins are leaking.  Luckily I'm still under warranty. The merc dealer is doing the repair from the outside. I'd rather he pull the engines, but I don't think merc will cover it.  I don't love the idea of cutting a hole in the drive to fix it & depending on a plate to cover the hole.  I get anxiety just thinking about it, but from what I've read, it works.

nhsd

Man, if mine were under factory warranty they would not be damaging my drive in order to "fix" it, they would fix it properly so that my drive met factory spec after the warranty work. I am sure that it "works", but third party after market parts "work" too but I wouldn't accept them for warranty repairs...