Play in out drive
 

My 97 Baja outlaw 24ft. seems to go right when coming off of full throttle to slow down. it seems to happen when i really back off the throttle to about 1500rpm. I also notice that at no wake speed i have to continuously correct the steering to go in a straight line. I was checking the drive out of the water and it seems to have about 2 inchs of side to side movement. Is this whats causing this to happen and is there a way to tighten up the side to side movement in the drive. thanks

Most likely your gimbal ring is worn out and needs to be replaced. I would bet if you lift up on the drive you have movement that way as well. I had to do mine last year. To replace it requires pulling the engine. It is about a $1200.00 bill to replace it. There are some kits to repair it with the engine still in place, but they require cutting/drilling holes in the housing. I opted to replace rather than do that.

It could also be that your steering is loose. I assume you have cable? That would be something to check as well. If the drive has play up and down tough, it will be the gimbal.

the moving side to side and correcting the steering is hunting, I am not sure what causes it but it is normal on most single engine boats. and there are some cool kits that cover the holes to fix the gimbal ring, they were posted on here a while ago, and you can even get your boat company logo carved into the piece.

there is some moement up i can see where the drive pivots on the top. are there any manuals out there on how to repair this

Check out this thread
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...le+ring+repair
The gimble ring repair iscovered very well.

The idle speed wandering for a single engine boat is normal. Good steering system and not over correcting will help.

Wandering at idle with a single is normal but he says it is making a move when he decelerates from WOT and he also states that there is 2" of slack in the drive side to side and some up/down slack as well. I would lean towards tiller arm and gimbal ring as well. Depending on the wear it may be better to replace the entire transom assy.

merc sells a kit for this repair, it includes black plastic pipe plugs and a new nut for the pivot pin, lots easier than pulling the motor, you will need a new gimbal ring and a pivot shaft, the pivot shaft is hard stainless and the gimbal ring is alum,
kit comes with template to drill the holes and when done it does't look that bad, I wouldn't pull the motor unless you just could not stand the look of the black plugs.

Got it with some great help from a formula fastech owner. Gimbal pivot was loose, tightened u bolt on gimbal ring and also the steering cable was not 100% tight. Its perfect now.

Sweet! I wish mine had been that simple! Oh well, at least I went ahead and built a new motor too!:D That made it worth the pull!

If you have trim tabs, drop them all the way when idling. that should just about get rid of the "hunting", works for me...