The steering arm on my 05 200 optimax have rusted to the point that i dont feel comfortable with it. The heads on the top mounting bolts are deteriated and there is no chance of getting a socket on them. Ive been putting this off for last few years because i know its a big job. I was quoted $1970 parts labor. This would be a stainless steel replacement. Does this sound about right or too high? Also what are the concerns if one of the top mounting bolts broke? Ive read many posts where people say dont mess with it until it breaks because its a big job. And others say it can be very dangerous if a bolt breaks during use and could cause boat to violently steer rt or lt possibly throwing passengers out. Thoughts?
Sad part is that i rinse and spray corrosion inhibitor on it after every trip. Everthing else on motor is in great shape and pretty much rust free, so dropping 14k on new motor isnt an option right now
As bad as it looks it is probably ok. Just about every other Merc looks like that. The bolt head don’t look any worse that what I had on my Merc 135 Opti. This is what I did to slow down the corrosion.
Use a combination of needle gun, screwdriver, drill mounted wire brushed to remove all the scale and loose rust. Just make sure to vacuum the mess up immediately so it doesn’t stain the gelcoat.
Clean the whole thing well with a degreaser an let dry.
Coat with a rust converter
Mask and spray with a self etching primer like zinc phosphate
Spray with Mercury Phantom Black paint. Not only for the color match, but it is a very durable paint…makes me wonder what they painted it with to begin with.
After the paint is fully cured, take a chip brush and coat everything with marine grease. Reapply grease periodically.
Well after more research and a more in depth inspection i decided to just have it fixed right away. I Got a better look at it today and discovered that the bottom yoke is falling apart as well. The bushing on the bottom is toast and there is a good bit of play there.
How do you know that the bottom bushing is bad? I thought the same of mine. I pulled the bottom yoke (yes, they turn into balls of rust too) and was able to tease the bushing out. Turned out it was good shape. I put a new one in and the play was the same. Keep it greased well and repeat the saying “it is okay, it is a Mercury”
That is good that you are fixing it and thank you for being safe. That is a safety issue for you, your passengers, and other boats in the area. I have seen first hand when a boat looses its steering. I had a large boat cut in front of me once that thank god my safety kill switch was working. Turned out the boat lost its steering capability as I was about to pass.
Its like someone who knows there axel and hubs are bad but keep saying to themselves the landing is down the street and never fix it. They put others in danger just to save a few dollars.
Although i hated spending the money, im glad i had it fixed. With the new parts on i realized just how bad the old one was . I had alot of play around lower yoke because it was falling apart. You could shake the lower part and see all the play, or when trimming the motor it bounced around because lower yoke was toast. Between that and the main bolt heads falling apart it was worth it to pay the money, be safe, and prevent further damage.
the price seems fair for what has to be done
the upper arm appeared to be “splitting” from the rust
we see a lot of that, and its usually just heavy surface rust.
yours seems to be structural from what I see
who did the work?
