Uneven outboard bolt holes

[Justin Broughton]

Hi all,

2001 NX 882DC. 2002 Merc 150 efi. Motor was brand new (hold over) in May when I got the boat from the dealer. I get real nasty chine walking at 57 mph or higher. I have to back out of the throttle or trim down. This is my fourth boat and second with a 150....Driving through it is not possible. I have raised the motor to where the prop shaft is 3" below the pad. That helped a little, but it is still bad. Well, long story short, I was checking my batteries in the back compartment and noticed that the bracket between the top two bolts that mount the stock factory setback plate to the boat seemed a little crooked. I measured the distance between the outside edges of the plate and the bottom edge of the fiberglass and there is 3/8" difference between the port and starboard side.

Anyone else ran in to this much of a difference in mounting bolt locations? Since all four main bolts are tight, I would assume that the template to do the holes originally was tilted a few degrees at the factory. Anyone had any experience getting this corrected? I am going to try and get the boat in with the local Nitro dealership to see if they can fix it or have any solutions.

Thanks,

JB

 

[Pat Goff]

Sometimes in layup, you might see differences in interior geometries.



You should arc the pad with a pencil and string to determine dead center of the pad, then measure your plate off that, it's the only way to tell for sure.



As far as setup/driving the 882, you need to come up with the motor until you lose water pressure or bow lift, then a bit back down. You didn't mention your current prop or your current results, that would help.



You don't drive through chine walk, you drive it before it happens, you can't stop it once it starts, you have to prevent it from happening.