Help with my mercury

I have a 93 20hp 2 stroke mercury with different bolts on the metal piece know as the tension plate or tensioner. If u look at my 93 bolts which is the first pictures they have colars on them which makes my 93 merc have so much play side to side and the tension is very minimal to hold the engine in place . Now look at the 2nd set of pictures, that is my 02 25hp merc,basically the same motor but no colars on the bolts and no play side to side whatsoever, as well as the tension being perfect and once I put the tension over to tight it doesn't move a lick unlike my 93,are those the right bolts in the 93???? I'm hoping someone has a 20 or 25hp merc close to that yr that can tell me,they just seem like the wrong bolts but I could be wrong,any help would be appreciated.

I'm sorry,they are sideways for some reason.If you look at the 2 top ones they are from my 93 merc and have collars and i don't understand why because there is so much play side to side due to it and the tension side to side on my 93 like i said is very mild,not very much tension when i push the lever all the way to the left like the 02 has with the bolts without the collars,very strange to me.I'm hoping someone has the same outboard that can help me to know if these are indeed the right bolts with collars.

Anyone?????????

The tensioner in those 2 years are different & how you tighten them up. There is just 1 bolt that you tighten.

Look at pictures 1 an 2,that is my 93 mercs tension plate and bolt with collars on them. If u look closely at the bolt it has a collar and where the thread ends which leaves a gap between the tension plate and bottom of the bolt which causes a tremendous amount of play in the outboard side to side that I believe should not be that bad,I'm going to put washers in between the bolt and the aluminum were the thread ends to eliminate the play,it should not be that loose imo. Sticking 2 flat ss washers there should tighten it up to were it eliminates most of the side to side play . When it idles the whole top of the motor shakes vigorously and it shouldn't, I know 2 strokes run rough but I have put my hand on the 2 sides to eliminate that side to side play due to the bolt not being threaded all the way in and what a difference it is. There is like 1/8 to like 1/10 inch gap from were the bolt screws into the aluminum that is causing the play so a couple washers should help that a ton. What the basic issue is,the actual collars on the end of the bolts are smaller then the hole in the tension metal plate and that extra room is causing so much play if you understand what I'm saying. I'm trying to explain it as best as possible . By at least sticking a couple washers over the tension plate to build it up then running the bolt from the bottom up through the holes in the tension plate and couple washers should darn near eliminate all play if not most of it. I'm sure it won't hurt anything like it is I just want to do this to see if it does fix the issue and if it does then it was a whole $1 fix from home depot with ss washers. My 2002 has 0 play side to side because if u look at pictures 3 and 4 the bolts are threaded all the way into to aluminum as it should be to eliminate all play and the bolts have no collars like my 93 does which I find strange because they are basically the same engines just a bit newer is the 02. I hope I explained myself good,sorry. Also wanted to mention that both mercs have the same tension systems,they are 100% identical except for the bolts,the 93 has bolts with 3/4 thread then collars,the 02 is bolted all the way into the aluminum on the motor and has no collars,strange since they are identical setups.

I am not familiar with this motor

but are you sure your swivel bracket shaft bushings are not worn out?

they are usually plastic sleeves that wrap around the swivel shaft between the shaft and housing

I had this happen on a different motor, it had the same issues you are talking about. No matter how tight I got the adjuster it would not matter since those bushings were gone

Absolutely positive the play is coming from these collared bolts and nothing more. I bought some washers to stick and sandwich in the gap u see on picture 1 to see if that tightens it up which it should significantly. I will post what happens as soon as I'm done.

The tensioner itself is fine,it's just those bolts are to small around and there is a small gap between the holes in the metal tensioner plate and the collar part of the bolt so it causes the motor to have extra movement in the top end of the motor. It won't hurt anything but it's very annoying and I believe I can eliminate a ton of play with adding the washers.

Sounds like the bolts are too long and bottoming out and therefore not tightening the tension plate.

I came up with my own method and it worked to perfection, take a look at pictures 1 and 2 on my first post,now look what I did to both sides,I bent a lock washer straight and installed it under the plate and a flat regular washer above the plate and it tightened it up better than new,absolutely no more play side to side like before. Here are the after pictures. It came out so good it looks factory finished,lol.

With that many moving pieces, there's a good chance it will come loose. Did you try to locate some shorter bolts, that's probably the best solution?

Believe me it's not coming loose. If by some miraculous crazy chance it comes loose,like I said, by the slimmest chance it would come loose then I loctite it in. It's on there good to. Nothing is moving but the plate itself now,back and forth, other then that, it's as good or better than factory new imo. My buddy was even impressed how good it worked. The bolt is extremely tight but I also didn't over tighten it either,the chance of it ever coming loose is the same as any other screw or bolt on the motor itself which is near slim to none. It ran so much better today,near no crazy power head shake like before. I love this merc and plan on keeping it permanently. In time I will put a 25hp carb on it.