I am a big fan of Mercruiser products. In fact , I'd rather not work on anything else , because or the interchangability of parts etc... I recently worked on a 2003 24' Searay that had a 5.0 Bravo 3 . Owner paid over $50,000 for it as a leftover in 2004. I was disapointed to find that the distributor cap had aluminum terminals and was eaten up so bad the motor could not be started. Sure it looked cool on the outside with the Mercruiser script, and even the silly SAE J1171 Marine sticker on it. Didn't even have a gasket ! Also went to re-torque the gimbal U-bolt and the nuts crumbled to bits ! Why did they use brass or copper nuts on a part that is to be torqued to 53 ft. lbs ? They must know that the u-bolt could get loose and wear out the made to go bad gimbal ring. I noticed the nuts holding the trim cyls. were also brass, they were on thier way out too. I guess they made them that way so the trim pins don't get the threads eaten. I've worked on things in service for many years, and never saw any thing like what I seen with with this pricy, very new boat. I had a hard time even getting the drive off due to a lack of lubrication on the input shaft. Hold on to your seat, Mercruiser is always finding new ways to seperate people from thier money !

Billy,
I can semi agree on some of the things that you are complaining about. But some I can't. As far as the grease in the coupler and splines, that is who ever put the package in the boat. They should have put enough grease on everything when they assembled the boat. The nut crumbling apart, I would check the grounds in the boat or ask the customer where he keeps his boat. Most of the time they only fall apart after sitting in the water with a shore power chord hanging in or an electrical problem of some sorts.
Yes, you are correct about the not usung stainless nuts on the pins. This way they don't gall up and ruin the pin and the nut. Even though alittle antisieze would do the trick. I guess it's better to be fail proof then always having problems. If they did use antisieze, they would have to pick the right one. Some of them have different chemicals in them that actually promote corrossion.

Take care.

John S.

John,
glad to see you clarify about the anti sieze..too many people are using the wrong anti seize (with copper in it) I ussually tell people in general never to use anti sieze on a boat merc 101 works just as well if not better!!!!

Found one of the Gimbal U - bolt nuts in the shop. The other totally crumbled when removing. I bought a Brand new transom assembly recently and it had stainless nuts on the U- bolt. I have never seen copper nuts on the U-bolt except this one time. Maybe it was a mixup at Merc. They couldn't have held 53 Ft pounds even new. The boat has been fine since I changed the U bolt Nuts to Stainless nylock's . BBB