gofastpilot

Has anyone come up with an idea to repair Bravo gimbal rings in the area where the pivot shaft is clamped? Also why did Mercury remove the grease fitting from the upper pivot shaft and bushings? The early Bravos had the greasable shaft and bushing which would greatly increase the life of the gimbal housing. I am presently rebuilding 2 units off the transom. And I have successfully repaired all the pivot points and the gimbal rings. This saved me about $2500 in new parts........gofast

formula31

I cleaned up the square area on mine and made a new shaft for the bigger size. Some people are welding them up and re-machining the square. According to Bam, mercruiser decided the bushings were self-lubricating. Whatever.

US1 Fountain

Here you go!
Repair

blown formula

I think Ron also makes a stainless swivel pin assembly also. $132.00 less than the Merc deal. Search on "swivel pin" & you will find the thread.

gofastpilot

Mercury really built a money making machine with the way a drive system can wear out, all the pivot points and such. But the Bravo is still the best thing going ..........gofast

formula31

I think Mercury could have done a lot better job of making everyone (mechanic, dealer, customer) aware of the importance of checked and re-checking the torque on the u-bolt regularily. This would stop most of the problems with the connection between the gimbal ring and the steering shaft.

Gary Anderson

formula31
Although a lot of failures are due to loose U bolts, I've also seen them go bad when checked regularly. And the U bolts are probably getting loose from the wear inside the square cutout. Repeated tightening just slows the problem.I think it's just a bad design. They should go back to the spline design, but that would probably add $1.95 to production costs.
Gary

import

Mercury makes 80% of total profits on part. Why would they cut profits and making their drives last?

formula31

Good point, but ethical engineers design part failure based on use and wear, not something coming loose because of crappy design.

Big Block Billy

There is no profit in parts that don't break. The swivel pin bushings are a bad idea too. What happened to the idea of just greasing them.
There should be a class action suit against Merc for all the people that have had transom assy's go bad from this preconcieved problem . It probably would not happen because too many people are making money off this problem. Another misfortune of parts proven on freshwater lakes and sold to salt water boaters. I like thier reply of 'self lubricating'. A bearing shell made of mild steel that can't be greased with a steel shaft , SELF RUSTING !!!

The swivel shaft has a grease passage in it. The bravo case, at least the ones I have,
have a small indentation where the passage gets drilled and is supposed to be. I would recommend drilling this passage and installing a $2 stainless grease fitting and grease ocassionally. The bushings , seal and even the shaft and steering arm are Alpha gen1 . Buy a used Alpha for parts and sell the left over parts and probably make money on the deal. I did some homework cross referencing part #'s. I found out the upper bushing is generic and could be had for $1.50 or even less at a bearing supplier. It's # is 10DU08
I'm working on getting the other parts at a discount. I'll never make money on these if I pay top dollar for parts. Merc. doesn't want me to !!! They want to sell new new new for $ $ $ $ >>> !!!!! BBB