I just purchased a new 42' Executioner which is due in any time now. I am a little concerned though as I have heard of two brand new 42's in the last two weeks, one is a Lighting and the other is a Executioner that have broken
the gimbals.

I saw one of them and the gimbal was actually cracked all the way through
with about a 1/8"-1/4" gap.

Has anyone else heard of this problem. Possibly there is a set-up problem at
Fountain or defective parts coming from Mercury?

Both of these were on Bravo XR drives with 525efi motors.

Just curious if anyone had any insight.

Gferdon who is away for a few days had that problem with an 2004 29 fever with twin 6.2. I under stand that it is not motor relater just drive related...

I have the same issue. My boat is at innovative marine in florida, apparently the gimbal and the lower unit are fried. It's a Donzi 38 ZX with 525's, ITS and XR/Sportmasters with only 40 hours on it. I am pretty gentle with it too. I talked to Pete at Mercury Racing and he assures me that there is nothing wrong with the set up. I am starting to wonder? After all they lied to me about the splash plate issue for several months before that owned up to it and redesigned the damm thing.

Just to clarify, I think I had a different problem. I have an '04 29 Fever with twin 6.2's and actually had a bellows failure (split in the rubber) that caused the gimbal bearing to fail due to corrosion over the winter layup. Mercury said they had a run of bad bellows and the problem was limited to a few units. The dealer replaced all affected parts and everything is back to normal. Good luck with your new 42!

G-

Big boats over 38" and over 500 HP = broken bravos.

Nauti-Props, just curious what was the splash plate issue that Mercury was
not upfront up with you?

I still think it is still unusual that two brand new 42' fountains, both
from the Chicago area cracked the gimbals, I think I am going to call
Mercury and ask a few questions.

I have a feeling that more responses will be coming in, hopefully not
though.

Any other Fountain owners planning on doing the Oshkosh Wi poker run
in June?

May be why Imco is offering there Own replacement
Heavy duty gimble Ring.

Click Here

And scroll down to the third part.

Cougarman

I had the boat delivered last summer with the single bolt spash plate on the sportmaster lower unit. The splash plate spun off and I called Merc. They told me that Donzi had installed them improperly. I was told to reinstall them with green loctite. I did exactly that. The next time I took the boat out, the splash plate was gone, but the bolt was still there. I had talked to Randy at Merc Racing several times during this evolution. Finally, he admitted that the plates were undergoing a new design. I finally received the new ones in October, so I ran several months without them. After talking to several knowledgeable people in the boating industry, Merc knew about this issue for quite some time...So Why didn't they come clean with my first call? Now, I have this gimbal issue with an outdrive with only 40 hours on it...I wonder what the real story is this time? I hope this explains a little.

I Sold A New 38 With 525,s Cracked Gimbals Housings And Couplers Destroyed! Engine Alignment Was The Problem!

Mark,

Any recommendations on how I can check the alignment to make sure it is
correct when I get the boat before I run it. I am sure the damage you
experienced was covered by the warranty, but it still would suck to loose
time on the water.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.