Bravo 3 Steering Pin Leak

Thornton69 said:
Well done!
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Thanks so much. No wonder I'm so tired of working on this boat, even putting together this "reader's digest" version of what I've been up to for the last two months makes me think I must be nuts to be into boating! Hope this helps others facing the same issues.
 
MattB92 said:
Beautiful work!! Looks brand new
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Thanks for your kind comment Matt. It's not as smooth and glossy as I'd like, but it was my first crack at using a spray gun with rust paint. Also, didn't help that it started to rain within 30 minutes of finishing the first coat - and I mean the skies opened up to biblical portions of rain along with thunder and lightning for a good 30 minutes. Our wonderful weather forecasters didn't see that one coming and had only predicted a 30% chance of rain for 1/2hr 3hrs later than when it came down in buckets. Glad I added a decent amount of acetone which helped the paint to flash off and dry faster. Nice work guys...

Cleaned them off for a second and third coat the next day. My main goal was to provide more corrosion protection for the aluminum so I hope the paint has covered well and provides a good solid protective coating. Almost looks too pretty to sit under water for half the year!
 
This is great info. Thank you for posting if we ever need a reference for this job. It looks fantastic.

You mentioned you must be ‘nuts’ - I found that I like working on the boat as much as captaining the boat. You seem to be the same. ;)
 
Very nice work and write up!
 
OllieC said:
This is great info. Thank you for posting if we ever need a reference for this job. It looks fantastic.

You mentioned you must be ‘nuts’ - I found that I like working on the boat as much as captaining the boat. You seem to be the same. ;)
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I do find working on the boat therapeutic and good exercise since I'm not much for going to a gym. In this case though the timing wasn't the greatest. Now June 22nd and still tying up loose ends to get this thing out of my driveway and docked. Hopefully by the end of this week! Just need to lube up the outdrive's pivot points and reinstall the props.
 
@Jimmy Buoy great work and thanks for the write up. Gotta do this same repair to my bravo 3 I think too. I’m curious how the stainless plate over the hole in the outdrive assembly will hold up over time. Especially since my boat lives in salt water.
 
Hoplite808 said:
@Jimmy Buoy great work and thanks for the write up. Gotta do this same repair to my bravo 3 I think too. I’m curious how the stainless plate over the hole in the outdrive assembly will hold up over time. Especially since my boat lives in salt water.
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Glad to help shine some light on this project. As you could see on my pics, I did not use the stainless cover primarily due to the zerk grease fitting being in the way and would require a custom cut-out to clear them. If that were done, there was a bit of concern that the "window" directly above the zeros might be prone to leaking in the future - didn't want to deal with that. The other thing is the stainless bolts holding the plate would probably corrode into the aluminum transom assembly, making it a challenge to remove down the road.

I'm confident that the two part epoxy used in the 1/4' or so gap between the transom assembly and cut-out piece will hold just as well. There is no real pressure on that area from the water since it's just at or an inch below the surface of the water. While underway, the area is actually out of the water. Plus, the area once the epoxy process was completed, plus a layer of primer, three layers of implement rust paint, followed by a Merc sticker - I don't think it will be leaking any time soon.

Should I find the need to get the window back open, I could remove the sticker, sand the face to reveal the outline of the previous window and drill out the epoxy. Hopefully I won't have to ever revisit the process.

If you need a hand with yours just reach out with a PM anytime.
 
A bit late but you still can add that missing grease fitting even with the SS pin
 
Bt Doctur said:
A bit late but you still can add that missing grease fitting even with the SS pin
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I did use new SS pins and added the missing grease fitting before installing them. That way I would know exactly where my drill pierced through the bushing. Even SS pins can wear against a steel bushing, so providing grease to them annually only makes sense.

The previous post was more about the JR Marine Kit's SS Plate which is designed to cover and seal the "access hole" from water entering the ER. It's a steel plate and rubber gasket with a hole cut at each corner for mounting screws. The issue is that the grease fitting is in the way of where this plate would be mounted so the plate would have to be notched out to be fitted properly.

Some think the SS plate looks cool. I however, think it can become a bit unsightly for a boat that sits in a slip as it sits on or just under the waterline and gets scummy over time. Different story for a trailered go-fast where the plate can be kept to a polished shine. That's why I went another route covering the access window.
 
Jimmy Buoy said:
Well I knew my new boat was going to be a bit of a project boat, but wasn't expecting this!

I first notice that the stb drive had quite a bit of play in steering - enough that backing into a slip was unpredictable.

Next was noticing a constant drip, about 1/sec coming from the bottom of the stb exhaust manifold. I kept tracking it down until I discovered it was actually coming from the base of the steering lever and running down the inside of the transom assembly. I used a borescope to take a better look and what I saw was a rusty mess!

The choice would be to have a mechanic remove both engines (since the port must come out first on my boat), remove the stb transom assembly, disassemble the thing and replace the pin and whatever else required OR attempt the JR Marine kit to repair it myself. I chose the latter... Here's the long sorted story.

Time to drill out the access window on the drive.
View attachment 129099
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I am picking up water in my bilge, I had a distribution housing cracked at the blue drain plug that I thought was the cause, but I have had the boat out a few times since I changed that housing out, and I am still picking up water in the bilge during every use. I have a borescope, I need to run to the lake and see if I can determine if the pin is my problem as well. Very good write up of the procedure
 
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