Free travel side to side in my outdrive

"just purchased a 1988 four wi

"just purchased a 1988 four winns sundowner 205 with v-8 gm 350 and alpha 1? i beleive outdrive...guy hit large rock and broke off the skeg and bent the stainless prop...won't go into gear...can see that the prop shaft rotates but turns out of round...can see the shaft at rear of motor rotates when running...must have broken something in the outdrive...what worries me is that the outdrive can be moved sideways 6-8" without moving the steering wheel,,,is this normal??or what might be broken??? have a seloc manual, but haveing a hard time figuring it out...moves like normal when engine is running but still has the side to side travel...also stalls when i try to putit in gear,,,just curious as to what these it will tkae to fix these problems...thanks mark"

"Mark,
From what you said if

"Mark,
From what you said if you shop around, about $2000.00 should fix it.

That's for an after market drive with a little left over for the parts you may need to fix the steering.
This is if there is not anything real bad with the steering.
If the upper drive is ok then you can save some on that as well.
Of course this is if you do the work yourself.

Without seeing the unit I can't say what the problem is but look for broken parts in the gimble ring area.
The amount of free travel in the steering makes me think something was broken. This doesn't happen often but it could happen.

As for the engine stalling,try disconnecting the shift cable to the lower unit from where it connects at the rear of the engine and see if you can shift the gears by hand.
It could be the interupt switch is killing the engine because the drive will not shift."

"i forgot to mention that it

"i forgot to mention that it recently had a new steering cable put on,,,i've heard that if the adjustment is wrong, there would be excessive play....i haven't been able to pin the steering adjustment in my seloc manual yet to check for propper adjustment after the cable was installed...thanks for the shared wisdom and any further on the issues is greatly appreciated,,,,mark"

"quick note...if you turn the

"quick note...if you turn the steering wheel to center , the out drive only swings towards the port side ...only moves about 1 inch to the starboard side...if all this makes a difference...thanks again, mark"

"Mark,
As far as I remember

"Mark,
As far as I remember there is no adjustment that would allow the amount of free play you have.
If the cable is installed correct there is not any place that will allow this movement unless the gears in the helm are shot. But without knowing what type / brand of steering system you have I can't be sure.
The best thing is to have someone move the steering wheel from side to side while you check for movement of the linkage in the back of the boat where the cable connects.
If the wheel moves a lot from side to side but nothing is moving where the cable connects to the linkage in the back of the boat then the helm has a problem. If the linkage is moving at the point it connects to the cable in the back of the boat with the movement of the wheel then you need to look for where the play is in the linkage from that point on."

"I just received a new lower u

"I just received a new lower unit for my 1984 4cyl
470 mercruiser, the old lower unit has a alpha 1 gen one model, it has a preload pin at top of drive and an O ring. the new has neither but was supose to be ok. I installed it and the motor stalls when I put it in foward or reverse. If any one knows about this , its sunday the place I bought it from is closed and was hoping to take a zip on the boat . Thank you"