[OMC-Boats] Mystery Bolt

Hello everyone,

Last Weekend my friend (Who owns an 1967 OMC Stern Drive Unit) started to load his boat onto his trailer and discovered that he could not tilt his stern drive unit up more than 2 inches from the full down position.

He also discovered that he could tilt the stern drive unit back to the full down position, but again it would only tilt up 2 inches and then stop.

Fortunately for my Friend, his trailer was high enough off the ground that he could load his boat onto the trailer at the ramp and stilll have a few inches of clearance before his stern drive unit would hit the ground.

When he moved his boat to the parking lot he removed the three bolts that hold the Tilt Quadrant gear to the Upper Unit. After removing the three bolts he was able to lift the entire unit up.

After he lifted the entire stern drive unit up he pulled out the tilt quadrant gear and discoverd that a 3/4 inch long stainless Steel cap screw had somehow gotten wedged into the tilt quadrant gear. The wedged screw would not allow the Stern drive unit to tilt fully up.

After removing the wedged Cap screw he re-installed the tilt quadrant gear onto the upper unit and found that the entire stern drive unit would again tilt fully down and up.

Later, My friend and I searched all over his stern drive unit in order to see what screw had come loose and fallen out. We could find no loose or missing screws. All observable bolts were accountable.

My friend spent the afternoon on his boat riding around the lake.

I know stainless steel bolts do not float, so obviously this bolt was not just floating out in the lake when it got picked it up by my friend.

Attached is a photo of the stainless steel cap screw.

Can anyone recognize which bolt this is and were it might have come from?

My friend would like some constructive opinions before he heads back out onto the lake for his test run on friday.

 
                                               
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