Piece of SH!# tiller arm?
 

Just had the drive off and tightened that tiller arm bolt with washer as tight and I could get it and it was solid. Now, after sitting for a weeks there is 1"-2"of play back in it. It is the square pin type of tiller. Anone have this problems? Guess I will pull the motor again and try to get at it without removing drive this time.

patric,

my friend just had this repaired on his boat this week
(while he lost more money in Vegas)
did you drill the holes to gain access to the bolt?

i will ask him the final outcome, but the marine mech though that the "horseshoe" may have cracked on the tiller arm, tightening the bolt therefore won't help.

jayl13 on this board did jsut what you did, an dstill had play like you. He found with the help of his mechanic that the linkage from the steering "cable? was loose/wore because of a tie bar and twin drives.(lifting one drive at a time creates a fight between tiebar and inside linkage between drives, something has to give).hold the drives stead, move the steering wheel and see if the tiller moves, or just the cable sleeve,
this may save some unneededwork for you.

good luck

I must have been high!
 

Thinking that I got that tiller arm tight. Pulled the motor and removed drive and took apart entire drive removing the tiller and upper vertical square shaft. They do not tighten, even in the vise. I guess that the boat was driven too long with all the play (previous owner) and one of the two peices is beaten out. Oh well, going to fix it right $$$$ because it was very tricky last summer cruising at 50mph with 7"-8" of play in the steering.

BTW
 

I am getting good at this Mercruiser stuff! 2hr to remove engine/entire drive/tiller arm. Would have left drive on, but it fell off when I removed inner transom plate and it is much easier to work on out of boat.

what do you have for pulling the engine
i have a new pole building and am thinking about a rolling
"A" frame with hoist. one that the "feet" could rotate 90 degrees and tuck against the wall. anyone seen this?

I used a regular cherry picker because my boat is low enough on the trailor. I don't know why your idea wouldn't work, I have used and old beam in my garage to pull motors and trans but in wrong place for boat.

I also just spent $370 on new steering parts. Both the swivel shaft and tiller were gone..........