The gimbal boot won't cause a leak into the boat. It will run up against the gimbal bearing and wreck it, but would only barely dribble past it into the boat. I would think if it was the steering pin you would be able to see it come in at the steering arm. My fill the bilge idea won't work for that leak so good...

Found the leak. A little corrosion on the top left corner of the outer transom plate. I had to remove the bell housing to see it. Water gets in a small crack, gets behind the transom plate, flows down to the exhaust opening at the inner pate. That's why the leak seemed to be at a low point. Easy to fix, a bltch to get to. I should remove the gimbal ring for ease of access, but I will just deal with the trouble and bruised knuckles. I have a long fiberglass nozzle that mixes fiberglass as it goes through the tube and do a repair pretty easy.
Most repairs are easy, all research and finding the problems are the tough parts.

WOW, never would have thought about corrosion causing a crack on such a new boat. I hope it is not a indicator of a bigger problem like a rotten transom flexing that caused the crack in the corrosion area.

The boat is1994, LMAO but I will show a pic of the u joint, it's like new. The corrosion spot is almost like a little crack in the thin area of the outer transom plate. The rest of the plate looks good.

they usually corrode from the water passage out into the housing...the backside may be completly eaten away

Actually both plates looks really good, except the little crack on the outer at a corner.