1988 Bravo One outdrives on my 292SR1. I discovered that both hinge pins were loose on both drives yesterday. As I research today, I found that there is 2 different hinge pins available. One for assemblies with trim senders and one for assemblies with trim senders. My drives used to have senders but now have mechanical indicators and the sending units were removed by the previous owner. My question is, should I repair the bell housings with the helicoil to utilize the threaded hinge pin or should I purchase the other style that screws to the trim sender mounting location since I no longer use the senders? This would obviously save me some time by not having to drill and tap but would this mean the bell housing assemblies are made different for units that didn't come from mercury with trim senders?

Item 10 and 11 in the link...

http://www.boats.net/parts/search/Me...VER/parts.html

Looks like I may have found the answer in the forum here that the #10 and 11 are for HP assemblies and will not work with the standard. Oh well, this is a new realm for me. Haven't had to mess with drives too much, outside of normal service, so far.

I know jrmarine has all the parts to repair. Including gimble ring repair

Since yours is a 1988 year model, Mercruiser did have an small issue back then with the hinge pins coming loose so they created a service bulletin with an explanation of how to properly retighten them back down....Looks like the years of use may have caught up to your transom assembly.

http://www.boatfix.com/merc/bullet/88/88_04.PDF

Thanks lakematdude! I took a peek inside and the threads are completely gone so I went ahead and ordered the appropriate helicoil kit and a new hinge pins. The hinge pin threads were undesirable in one area and didn't want to risk further damage attempting to reuse them. Both my drives are in need of repair so it looks like I have a busy weekend ahead of me with repairing this. Unplanned maintenance sucks but I am glad I noticed the issue when I did.

Might be looking at replacement. With that kind of wear on bell, might also have issues with the ring

Not looking forward to it. It was about 30 degrees with 20 MPH winds when I was out there working on her so once I found that issue, I went into the garage and cracked a cold one. Once I get the helmet and such out I am going to inspect it a bit further for abnormal wear and to see if there is enough meat left to true everything up.

Here's a mod we did at the shop for a friend of mine.
Normal pin will come loose and egg shape as you have found.

Machined the threads out of the Helmut for the same bushing that is in the transom ring.
Removed the bushing from the transom ring.

Had four stainless pins turned.
Large head bolted to transom ring.

Pin that extends from the head is stepped.
Larger diameter is now NET to the ID of the transom ring, because the bushing was discarded.
Smaller diameter that extends to beyond the transom ring is turned to the ID of the bushing in the helmut.

Now it never turns and can't loosen up from normal trimming of the drives.

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