Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

Pulled the boat early this season after looking at the long range forecast and weighing the amount of( decent) fish that were around. Figured I'd square things away so I fish Salmon I ice out on Winni before I slip berth the old tub for the summer..

I had noticed slop in the engine/ mounting system, the boat had become increasingly hard to steer under load but was fine below planning speed, I assumed it was the usual mercury swivel pin and swivel pin bushing problem, so I ordered everything needed to replace the pin, including the yoke and motor mounts and hardware..$1100 in parts to be exact...so I pulled the lower unit and power head to gain access to the swivel pin and bushings,well it was worse than I had thought, the spline on the shaft had completely rusted away, the slop was all in the end of the pin and yoke, the lower motor mounts attach to the yoke, and were no longer helping turn the engine, the engine was being steered by the top of the swivel pin and secured only by 2 top corroded engine mounts, luckily everything came apart with minimal grief, I had bought everything I could possibly need to make the job go better, the shift shaft runs down through the center of the swivel pin and had so much movement it elongated the seal and allowed water into the lower unit, luckily, all the bearings were fine, no rust , I keep a seal kit for those big foot, mid HP Merc's in stock, so I resealed the lower unit and replaced the water pump.. it took me a day and a half to complete the job which also included replacing the thermostat and poppet valve and test then winterize the engine...