Hey Bo,

Good to see you join the board . This place can always use another experienced person like yourself.

hey vin, how are ya. thankx , appreciate the positive comment. don't sweat the gimbal ring too much. like i said , unless you plan on running hard in the rough, with some serious side load on the drive/ gimbal, you'll be fine however if you need a new hp ring or gimbal i have both call me..

Thanks Bo. Maybe I will take everyones advice and let it go for now.

Sorry for hijack'in your thread, but this thread caught my eye.

I have a bad gimbal to steering bushing on a 1997 Baja, the top one the u-bolt tightens.
Has anyone here replaced one, and what needs to be done? Can the bushing alone be replaced?

checkmate454mag originally asked about special tools do you need any for this job?

I assume you have external steering when asking this question. You guys sound a little mislead on the gimbal ring. Hp numbers have nothing to do with how strong your gimbal ring needs to be. It is the speed of the boat , nose cone or not, to much tow in or out on a twin set up, water conditions and how hard you run it, etc that is the issue. If you have good helm hydraulic steering and all of the other things check out, the merc hp gimbal should be fine.

I have seen the standard gimbal hold up to a lot, but then I have broken one at speed. Not a fun deal at all. I replaced the standard with an HP unit. There is a kit. If you do run the standard one, make sure you keep and eye on the hinge pins. They have a tendancy to back out and make a mess of the threads.
Vinny, if yours it tight and you dont want to spend the money now, then you could be ok. But if you have the motor out and the drive off, now is the time to switch to the HP gimbal, just for piece of mind, in my opinion. If you dont, then make sure you check all the bushings, etc. top, bottom and sides..

Dick