How much side-to-side and up/down play is acceptable in a Bravo 1 drive before I need to be concerned about gimbal ring wear?

Thanks.

should be no up and down side by side1/8'' to 1/4'' you can pull the mother and replace the nut or get the kit that goes threw the sides. and get a hp gimbal ring if you need to change it.

I WAS going to just blow it off and say "It'll be fine". After your less than optimistic response, I thought I'd better check into it. Turns out that the U-bolt fasteners were torqued to less than 35 ft-lbs. Once torqued to 53 ft-lbs, everything tightened up. No up/down play and very very little side-to-side. The drive has less than 200 easy hours on it. I'm not sure whether the nuts loosened up on their own or were not torqued properly in the first place. In any case....all is good. I love cheap fixes. Thanks!

The torque needs to be checked on those nuts as part of routine maintainence. The "U" bolts stretch over time. Isn't it good when the problem is something simple.

can anyone explain where these ubolts are and what they look like? Never really looked at the drive, but I know mine has play. I would like to check them
thanks!

You can't see the U bolt, just the nuts. They are on the center of the transom assembly, about 6" from the top, and have single SS plate that acts as a washer.