Mercruiser Bravo outdrive - What could this have damaged?
 

Last summer my boat (with Bravo 3 outdrive) was serviced including new
gimble bearing, bellows, trim pump, etc. Just after the service I was
going along and the boat suddenly swerved to the right. I slowed down
and tried accelerating again but the steering fely very odd.

Further inspection revealed that one of the trim cylinders had come
off at the transome end (they simply hadn't used a new locknut) and
the drive was being pushed over to one side. This tilting of the
drive was obviously affecting the handling! Upon getting the boat out
of the water we discovered that one of the skegs had also been broken
off.

The service shop ackowledged their mistake and refitted the trim
cylinder and over the winter (early this year) the outdrive was
removed for a number of months to have the skeg welded back on.

4 weeks ago I took the boat out for the first time since last summer
and within 1 mile of leaving the marina there was a grinding/rubbing
noise coming from the outdrive. They have now found that the problem
was a shot bearing in the top of the gearbox which they have fixed.

Is it possible that either the problem with the trim cylinder or that
fact that the outdrive was off the boat for a number of weeks/months
(probably sitting outside)have caused this problem with the bearing,
or is it just a coincidence?