So I'm about ready to bolt the new assembly to the transom. but I can't get the maybe 1/8th inch slop out of the steering arm. Is there a trick?? I've tried wrenches on both the bolt and the nut, but they won't budge. i tried tightening up the big nut on top (on the pivot pin) but that didn't seem to help either (how tight should that bolt be by the way??).

Any thoughts????

You may need to get some stainless steel shims and put them in between the tiller shaft and the gimbals and then tighten them down. Loosen them up and then stuff the shim in the gap.

Yup you may need to shim it. There is a torque spec for this but I am not sure what it is off the top of my head and doing it the way you are there is no way to get a torque wrench in there anyhow. If you are going as much as you can with the box end wrenches then I would say you are going to have to shim it. The top nut just brings the drive up and into place. That does not tighten the tiller arm at all. Back the nut out and try and get some grease in there and retighten it if you can. If that does not work you will have to shim it.

Jon

Dude, I can't get them loose either. Tried both ways. No tighten, no loosen. I'm affraid I'm gong to break the bolt.

On the bright side, it has less slop than my old tiller arm does. probably half as much.

That is a hardened bolt. Not likely you will break it. Even if you do you can then slide the pin out and pull out the tiller arm and put a new bolt in there. Make sure you use a hardened one. I would tell ya to get a new pin and tiller arm but I know you are on a budget at this time and you have already blown past that. Anyhow you want to get it tight at if it is loose it will get worse and could cause a accident especially with all that new power

Jon

Dude, wrench on both sides, even hit one with a hammer trying to get it loose. Didn't budge. And I don't think there is enough room to get a breaker bar in there. In fact, I know there isn't enough room to get a breaker bar in there.

Ok man hear is a trick. Take your box wend wrench and put it on there. If I remember correctly it is either a 9/16ths or 5/8ths. Then take another wrench and put that open end of the wrench that is on the nut to the closed end of the second wrench. This will give you twice the leverage. If I am not explaining myself correctly please let me know and I will try better