Last season I noticed a lot of play/slop on the drive when shaking it back and forth nothing up and down just side to side. Id like to get it fixed while I have the motor out so I can actually see what Im looking at. I will admit that I have no clue where to start or what all the different parts are called so any help,advice or info is greatly appreciated!!!

What drive ?

Sorry, bravo one

Sounds like steering cable slop. There is more slop in the cable systems than you would think there ought to be. If in fact there is too much. The problem could be in the helm or the cable. You ought to have someone with experience take a look for you. By all means make sure it is in good shape.

Ant,
if you can have someone move the drive and you look for slop, you can determine where it is. Look at the tiller arm and see what is happening as the drive goes back and forth. That can help point in a direction. Although there will be some slop in all the components, excessive slop is a problem.
What style of transom assy?? Standard or B1? Standard will have the trim limit switch and trim sender, mounted on top of the pins. The HP has a SS pin about the size of a silver dollar with two or four bolts.
If it is the standard, then you must check the pins, they have a tendancy to unscrew and cause havoc..
Let us know what you see.
If you go to Mercruiserparts.com you can see breakouts of the parts to help you learn what you are looking at..
Hope that helps.
Dick

Look at the top of the gimbal ring as your moving the drive side to side you will see that the square shaft is now rounded out , the gimbal is alum and will wear b4 that steel bolt ever gets a wear mark in it ... u will find the fork on top is solid but the gimbal is rounded out.

Probably has a worn out swivel shaft on the gimbal ring. pull the gimal ring and send it in to jrmarine they have them waiting when yours arrives for a couple hundred bucks . just changed out 1 on the nova and did it all from the transom never had to get in the boat ..good luck & if you hit a snag shoot me a P.M.




http://www.jrmarine.com/products/gimbal_repair.htm

is this normal?

NO.....

Remove the hinge pins, check the bore in the gimball ring and housing and I suspect you will be replacing one or the other.

That movement is down-right dangerous IMO.......good thing you found it out now.....

Looks to me like it's missing washer #3 in this diagram.
http://www.perfprotech.com/store/ass....aspx#assembly

There is washer #2 in this diagram but I don't think it affects that side to side play but not positive.
http://www.perfprotech.com/store/ass....aspx#assembly



My quess would be #3 in the gimble ring diagram. Could be missing on one side or both. Some one may have had the bellhousing off at one time to change the bellows and thought there was only one washer on each side. Should be 2 different washers in between the bellhousing and gimble ring on each side.