I put a vinzi marine HP transom assembly in my boat, and imco full hydraulic single ram steering have 500 hp 454 and made it 2 hrs and the gimbal helmet broke out from the hinge pin. anyone seen this? or did i just get a piece of junk transom assembly? heres the link to the transom assemby
http://vinzimarine.com/2011/02/mercr...nsom-assembly/

I also forgot to mention there was alot of clearance between the wear pads on the drive, to the plate guides on the gimbal ring a good 3/8 each side. I cant recall what the clearance was like on my old NON hp set up. It also had about 3/16 clearance between the gimbal helmet to the gimbal ring (i could slide the helmet back and forth). Should all this stuff be tight with no clearanace? Vinzi marine just told me to send it all back if i dont like it and not answering my clearance questions. I really dont feel like pulling my motor to pull out my transom assembly again.(our boating season in canada is short)

There should be little clearance between the helmet and gimbal.. You shouldnt be able to slide it back and forth. and the wear pads should be very close, rubbing the gimbal at that point..

They are rebuilds and may have had mismatched/missing parts. I have never heard of them.Has anybody else from OSO ever used them?

i thought there should not be any gaps/clearance in this stuff. looks like i bought myself a piece of junk. for a few hundred more and alot less hassle i could of had a new merc one. now ill end up having to pull my motor to remove this assembly and loose alot of money in shipping. i heard a snap when i was trimming it up or down (i cant recall which way)at idle. so that must of been when it broke out from the hinge pin area

I did some measurements the width of outside to outside of my drive wear pads is 4 1/16.
Between the gimbal bottom plates furthes away from the transom is 4 3/8 but closer to the transom it tightens up to 4 1/8 does this sound normal???