is there anyone that has used an alternative seal for the swivel pin seal? is this a standard rubber lip seal ? I hear the factory ones are junk anyway. If i new a standard one woud work , I could finish getting my transom back together tomorrow , if not , it will be waiting on a Merc part , and not finishing until next weekend.

Take the pin to a bearing place. They should be able to match you up.

if memory serves me correctly it is a double lipped seal.... sorry I can't remember for sure...

It's a single lip, at least the ones on my TRS were. I couldn't get the numbers on the top of the seal to cross reference to anything common. I also surfed the Timken seal catalog on the web and could not find anything with the same dimensions.

I have two new ones on order, couldn't find a better alternative.

I called my bearing reps from two different places today .
The best i could tell with just a scale , the measurements looked like shaft size was 1-1/16" and the bore in the housing was 1-3/8" . Neither one of them came up with anything.
I searched quite a bit this evening for threads thinking somebody else has had to have had this same trouble. I really want to assemble the transoms tomorrow and dont have the parts . THis sucks......

External Hydraulic steering takes a fair amount of the stress/wear off that area of the Transom Assembly....

I already have the external steering , the seal has just been leaking for some time. I have pretty much change anything and everything in the back that could possibly leak. I dont know what I was thinking not buying these seals in the first place.

I honestly think i am going to try a different approach with the seal. I have not read anything good about the factory seal. I use a different type of "Isolator" in the industrial business , that i think would work great. may just have to machine the holes out just a bit.