Well I have procrastinated a bit on my winter project to say the least. I am working on pulling gimbal pins on my 6s, the boat was in salt water before I bought it last fall and I was advised that if those pins bind up I could crack a gimbal.

With a bit of a fight, I was able to get steering bolts and pins out. Sure enough the drives do not move back and forth by hand barely at all with steering off. With the tie bar connected, I could get them to move a little, no where near complete swing, and that’s throwing all my 200 lbs into it rocking the whole boat. Tie bar off, I can move each drive full swing by hand without too much difficulty but still tight enough to think I should pull and clean up the pins. I think?

I pulled a drive, next step seems to me would be front trim cylinder pins, I have a fine threaded bolt with washers I welded to it and a slide hammer, I’ve sprayed with penetrating oil, let sit over night, gave it all I had, wouldn’t budge, sprayed, let it sit overnight again, have done this 3 days now and it is just not moving. This is with a 5 lb slide hammer, is a bigger slide hammer the answer? Any other tricks anyone could please share? I have tried some light heating, just with an electric heat gun because I’m afraid to heat too much and hurt anything whether it be the gimbal itself or especially down by trim steering cylinders/lines. Should I be using more heat am I safe to do so? I’m not too worried about paint as before stuff goes back together I plan to get fresh paint on there anyway, just don’t want to damage anything. Any advice greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
joe

Inspect everything very carefully, if there’s no cracks, carefully use heat and the biggest slide hammer you can get. Alternating between heat and penetrating oil they will come out.
ive done several of them, all salty, and sometimes an air hammer and wrecking the pin itself is the only way.
I say inspect carefully because I’ve also put 8 hour into disassembling one to find a crack in it.....
If the ring is cracked it cuts easy with a sawzall

Thanks JD!

Bigger slide hammer it is. Most the ones online I saw were 10 lb, I think I even saw a 13 lb one somewhere.

So if I don’t have to sacrifice them of course, the trim and hinge pins can be reused correct? but from what I am reading the upper and lower pins are one time use only? Or have you reused those as well? Just trying to get a parts list started.

thanks!

if you need more weight on the slide hammer,,find an old brake drum and use it as a ram.plus it gives you the chance to use both hands to pull really hard.

Sutphen 30 good idea! But in this case I’m trying to do the job without pulling the whole transom assemblies off the boat, the trim ram pin anyway I don’t have much clearance from the slide hammer and trim tab, inside one going to be close but I think if I get the other drive off and turn and trim the helmet I can clear, not enough to room for something big like that though unfortunately! Maybe the hinge pins if they want to fight too I could do that, thanks!

You can also use work out weights added to the slide hammer. Just slide them down the bar. Very easy to make a 15lb or 30lb hammer.

Underpsi, I owe you one! The work out weights saved me from buying another slide hammer that wouldn’t have been enough anyway, 20 lb total did the trick for me for the side pins haha.

anyone have any tips for the top pin now? Wow that thing is in there. I see now why shop manual says you must replace this one if you pull it, getting pretty dinged up and it hasn’t moved a bit yet. Using heat, alternating with spray, a sledge and big piece of round stock as a punch and it’s not even thinking about it...

thanks
joe

Well if the pin is already getting damaged use a good air hammer.

So I finally got everything apart. I found the retaining screw at the bottom of both bottom pins broken off, they were tight where they pass through the gimbal but nothing like the top pin, and actually had a little bit of play top and bottom where they go through housing, is a little bit of play there normal? It seems like the bolt snapped because the pin wanted to turn in the housing rather than in the gimbal. Unfortunate that wasn’t noticed by the previous owner and remedied sooner, because that’s probably why there is some wear on the pin holes of the housing now.

Is there any fix other than having slightly larger pins made and machining both the gimbal and housing to fit to take up that little bit of play in the housing? Then would need custom bushings for the gimbal as well, seems like a lot of screwing around. Was thinking some sort of thin metal bushing for top and bottom would work, didn’t know if that is ever done or if you guys have any other ideas.. or if a little bit of play is won’t hurt as long as it can turn free and not snap that retaining bolt again.

I probably should replace the plastic bushings “sleeve bearings” top and bottom in the gimbal then correct? Considering that is where it is so tight, I’m guessing the salt has worked it’s way behind those and that’s what is causing the binding... and if I should replace those, what’s the trick for getting those out and new ones in?


thanks!
joe

Cut the old gimble ring apart and put it in a hydraulic press and press the pins out.