Meaty wrote:I ordered a new one: $50 for a piece of metal. Geez.
As a new boater, you will need to become less concerned about the $50 cost of an OEM repair part for a 33-year-old engine.
The OMC engines usually have a very nice support bracket to mechanically support the engine in a tilted-up position for trailering. The is a great feature. It takes off the stress on the hydraulic trim and tilt actuator. I don't have any good data about the frequency of repair for that metal bracket part. I would expect that fracture of that part would be very unusual.
I am curious to learn how that metal part broke on your engine. When you were trailering the boat, was the trailer support arm used as recommended in the operating guide?
The usual method for using the trailer bracket is to tilt up the engine with the hydraulic actuator, pull the trailer support arm out and into the operating position, then to lower the engine down, letting it bear its weight on the trailer support arm. In this way the engine becomes locked in place against the trailer support arm.
I would not expect the trailer support arm to fracture if properly used. I would be concerned if the bracket were pulled out into operating position, but the engine was not tilted down to bear against it. In that situation the engine could fall down and hit the bracket if exposed to some sort of jarring road conditions and the hydraulic tilt-trim actuator could not hold up the engine. If the engine were allowed to repeatedly bounce and bang against the trailer support bracket, I can see how the bracket might be broken.
Of course, it is possible that there was a manufacturing defect in the support bracket, say a small crack, and it has taken 33-years of use for the defect to become sufficient to cause the part to fail. I don't know how likely that is, but it could happen. However, I think it more likely that some unusually strong impact of the engine falling onto the support bracket may have created a dynamic load that exceed the part's strength.
Meaty wrote:Can I trailer the boat while the engine resting on [the shallow water drive]?
There are several methods to provide support for outboard engines in a tilted-up position when the boat is on the trailer. These methods are usually used with non-OMC engines, because the OMC engines already provided for that function. Since I have no experience with these after-market devices, I cannot offer any advice about them. They do seem to be popular with boaters that have non-OMC engine that do not provide a trailer support arm in the engine mount.
Meaty wrote:Can I maybe use a block of wood?
A piece of lumber like a 2 x 4 can be used as a temporary method to support the engine in a tilted-up position when on the trailer.
Meaty wrote:Do I trailer with the engine all the way up?
Depending on the particular boat, engine, and trailer, the engine may not need to be moved to the fully tilted-up position when trailering. If there is sufficient ground clearance, you may be able to tow the trailer and boat with the engine in a more vertical position, and depend on the hydraulic trim-tilt actuator to maintain it in that position.
I used to trailer all my boats with the engine in an almost vertical position. There was sufficient ground clearance with the skeg of the engine to the pavement, so it was not a concern--except in certain situations where you might have to go through a particular down-and-up segment of pavement, such as a driveway with crossing a deep ditch. Keeping the engine in an operating or vertical position was useful with older engines that used carburetors. Tilting an engine to almost horizontal will usually cause all the gasoline fuel to spill out of the carburetor bowls, leaking into the engine cowling pan, and leaving an oil residue. Also the empty carburetor bowls make the engine difficult to start.