just got my reworked gimbal rings, new ss pins, new steering arms, u bolts and bushings installed and have some play in lower pivot bushing in ring. Ron at jr marine said this is normal and will not get better with new pin and bushing. Is this play normal or acceptable? I thought all will be tight after spending $2,500 in all new everything. Have not put belhousing on yet, should i replace lower bushing and pin too??

When i did my gimbal I replaced the the lower bushing scince i had it apart but used old pin. When you tighten up the swivel pin did you get it tight enough, if i remember correctly tighten it so you have (Guage) .001 -.010 play in the lower pin. But dont quote me on this.Hopefully someone else will chime in

jrmarine told me not to use the guage, just tighten it up until i could feel some drag, he said if you use the guage, when you hang the drive on it, it would drop back down a bit and be loose. They check the bushing and said it was ok, He said sometimes they replace it and it ends up being worse off with new bushing and pin. does yours rock a little bit in the lower hole? mine does...not much about 1/32 or so. Everything is tight at the top though.

Simply rocking the lower pin in the bushing while the ring is off is not a true measurement of wear. That lower pin does not see that type movement when all is together. It's a straight lateral force, not rocking where you are only dealing with 1" of guide(bushing), vs the 12" of true distance force.

i do have the ring completely installed, an assistant can hold the steering arm and i can try to move the ring from side to side like steering the boat and i can see the lower section of the ring right above the bushing shift side to side about 1/16 at the most. Is this enough to worry about?