This tie rod mount took a crap and busted the outer housing around the gimbal's lower pin. It turns out that the tie rod end mount was defective from the factory. A close look and you can see the dark area where it was cracked from day one. The crack is by the weld which is the result of not heating both pieces of SS properly before welding. The design also sucks if you compare this part to others. The base plate should be a lot shorter with either an additional spline or the top bracket or clevis closer to the bolts.

If you have a mount like this they should be replaced by the manufacturer immediately.

Placed this Ad in the wanted section. Have a new gimbal on order but the part is back ordered from Mercury.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/classifi...ct=2882&cat=28

W O W That could've benn deadly. Was this off your Skater? How did you catch this?

Hi Frankie.

Off the Skater for sure. We just came off the gulf into Gordon Pass in Naples and somebody noticed it as we were idling.

Used up a lot of luck that day. No sense in purchasing any lottery tickets for a while.

I would ck hydraulics to be sure its working correct.. Just a thought.

You are right. The inside (or same side) as the break in the tie rod occured the weld on hydraulic arm at the nut was slightly compromised. It has to be welded again.

I would guess your hyd, are working aginst each other... somehow something is a miss. IMO.

No, the tie bar mount failed. After the tie bar mount was welded we ran about 20 miles to get home. Steering is good. Purely failure of the tie bar mount.

The gulf was pretty rough that day but we had been through a lot worse.

I heard this was common on the early style number 6 wingplates. They added a piece of bar stock stainless that extends all the way up the middle along side the bolts holes and is tig welded.

Replace both. Call Marine machine.

You are correct. Here are the replacement parts.

The new ones are to be installed with the tie bar down instead of up. The spline gives you no options.

That be the bar stock tig welded. Hey what ya know.

Hey man good luck be safe.