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Steering play question

Jakwi

Member
Hi there, I have a 2003 Bayliner 245 with a Mercruiser inboard and an alpha 1 gen 2 outdrive.

I have about 90 degrees of play in the steering wheel. I first looked at the upper swivel pin as that seems to be the most common culprit, but stern drive and gimbal are nice and tight, which is good news.

So I had my son rotate the steering wheel between the points where it didn't turn the outdrive while I looked for any looseness.

What I found is that there is slop in the steering actuator between the clevis pin and the shaft. It is only about 1/4 of an inch of play, which to be honest looks reasonable to me, but results in 90 degrees of play in the steering wheel. So my question is, is this normal? or is the steering actuator shaft wore creating the slop? Is there a fix for this aside from replacing the actuator? Or is it the cable end that is the shaft in question? In which case would a cable replacement solve the issue?

steering actuator.jpg

I uploaded a video to Youtube which shows the end of the shaft and how it moves within the assembly. The video is taken from the angle of the red arrow in the image below. The movement is minimal, even in the video, only noticeable if you're looking right at it. The screen shot below also shows where to look in the video.

steering actuator 2.JPG
steering actuator 3.JPG

https://youtu.be/6UX-hbo78qw

Thanks for the help.
 
Last edited:
What I found is that there is slop in the steering actuator between the clevis pin and the shaft. It is only about 1/4 of an inch of play,

Ayuh,...... Generally speakin', it's the clevis pin itself that wears,......
 
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