If you’re running a mid-90s Johnson/Evinrude or older in salt and you haven’t checked your steering arm, check it. On my motor, the portion of the steering arm that stuck out from under the front of the motor didn’t look terrible (in terms of the amount of metal in it - looked terrible aesthetically). It was about 1/2" thick and had some, but, not a lot of rust. Half of the paint was still intact. However, the part goes back under the motor and has a ‘Y’ at the other end. The two arms of the ‘Y’ were significantly (dangerously) more corroded than the front portion.
I took a look at it last winter and decided I needed to go ahead and fix it. Getting to it can be an ordeal. Ideally, you hang the motor on a lift, remove the 4 lower mount bolts and the upper 2 mount bolts (go through the steering arm) and swing the motor back away from the bracket. However, I could not get my upper mount bolts to come free. So, I ended up having to pull my power head so I could get some gentle heat on the bolts. That worked but was a lot of work.
Once I got the power head off, it was clear that she needed to be fixed. The arms of the ‘Y’ are shaped like 1"x1" angle running front to back with a horizontal face and vertical face, …maybe 1/4" thick or more. On mine, the vertical face was badly corroded but had a lot of meat left. The horizontal faces were much worse and tapered to paper thin at their outside edges. This part is what connects the main body of the motor to the motor bracket. If this part fails, bad stuff happens.
With angle grinder, drill+wire brushes, and Dremel to get into the crannies, I cleaned up the arm pretty well. Then, with a 110v stick welder, I built up the arms and ground them back to shape. I got about 1/4" thick on the horizontal faces and about 1/2" or more on the vertical faces. The area where the two faces meet (cross section of the arm) is thicker, more like 3/4" or better. Even with my baby welder and hobby-ist skills, I think the material went on pretty well with very little porosity.
The upper part of the ‘Y’ is tucked up under the front of the motor. You can’t see the upper surface of it, but, you can see the sides and bottom. For years I’ve tried to clean it up best I could, in place, and hit it with various paint products. But, I never could slow the corrosion. Couple of years ago, it was obvious it was going to need work if I was to continue to use the motor. Sometime last fall/winter, I checked it again, and flaked a big chunk of rust off of the top of one of the ‘Y’ arms and it left a paper thin outer edge. I figured that was getting pretty sketchy. So, apart it came.
The title of my post says Johnny/Rude, but, I think most manufacturers have this same problem on lots of motors. I’m sure I’ve seen Mercs with this same problem.
It is a mystery, to me, why a manufacturer used such good alloys all over this motor and chose to bury a mild steel critical part down in the guts of the assembly. Theoretically, you should be able to remove 6 bolts and get to this thing. But, the two bolts that went through the ends of the ‘Y’ arms into the motor wouldn’t budge. I had to remove the power head just to get a little heat on the things with out risking cooking other parts of the power head. So, off the power head came. PITA.
17’ Henry O Hornet w/ Johnson 88 spl
26’ Palmer Scott project hull
14’ Bentz-Craft w/ Yamaha 25
The upper part of the ‘Y’ is tucked up under the front of the motor. You can’t see the upper surface of it, but, you can see the sides and bottom. For years I’ve tried to clean it up best I could, in place, and hit it with various paint products. But, I never could slow the corrosion. Couple of years ago, it was obvious it was going to need work if I was to continue to use the motor. Sometime last fall/winter, I checked it again, and flaked a big chunk of rust off of the top of one of the ‘Y’ arms and it left a paper thin outer edge. I figured that was getting pretty sketchy. So, apart it came.
The title of my post says Johnny/Rude, but, I think most manufacturers have this same problem on lots of motors. I’m sure I’ve seen Mercs with this same problem.
It is a mystery, to me, why a manufacturer used such good alloys all over this motor and chose to bury a mild steel critical part down in the guts of the assembly. Theoretically, you should be able to remove 6 bolts and get to this thing. But, the two bolts that went through the ends of the ‘Y’ arms into the motor wouldn’t budge. I had to remove the power head just to get a little heat on the things with out risking cooking other parts of the power head. So, off the power head came. PITA.
17’ Henry O Hornet w/ Johnson 88 spl
26’ Palmer Scott project hull
14’ Bentz-Craft w/ Yamaha 25
Engineered failure. Kind of like Ford and others using a nylon Timing gear and so many other examples.
