Pylon mount question 73 Martinique

General question here concerning standard pylon as mounted in 73 Martinique.

We have owned this boat for about 3 years, and it serves us well and runs very well. Recently while cleaning the boat after a weekend skiing, we noticed the trim ring around the pylon where it goes through the floor/carpet was loose. The screws securing the trim ring to the floor through the carpet had the heads bent. I was impressed that the stainless screws were solidly enough in the floor that the heads bent while the rest of the screw was still straight, but also surprised as this seems to indicate movement beyond anything we've noticed before, and I was not thinking of this trim ring as a load bearing component.

We removed the screws on that trim ring, opened the engine cover and moved the battery cover to inspect the pylon mounting. Under the floor, the pylon is mounted to a metal bar spanning the space between the stringers, and the pylon shaft appears to be fitted over a brass foot in the bottom of the hull. With one person pulling the pylon toward the rear of the boat, the metal bar can be seen to flex, though no movement can be felt at any of the bolted attachments..seems to be primarily flexing of the cross bar between the stringers rather than movement in any of the bolted attachments(apparently little to no movement from loose bolts either metal to metal or metal brackets to stringers.
Movement can be felt between the bottom of the pylon shaft and the brass fitting glassed into the bottom of the boat, though I am unsure whether that movement is between the pylon and the brass foot, or between the brass foot and the glass bottom of the hull.

Does this sound like what you would expect?

How much movement is expected or acceptable?

Is the floor a structural component of the mount?

What inspection, disassembly or reinforcement is recommended?

Does anyone have any photos or a diagram of how this should all be fitted together?

Thanks for any guidance.

Curtis

Something is definitely wrong, the pylon should be rock solid. Maybe the cradle has a crack in it. Mine took a big impact from a boat collision & never yielded.

For this summer, I would epoxy in some temporary support to the floor (band-aid) & then tear into it in the off season.

SNobsessed wrote: Something is definitely wrong, the pylon should be rock solid. Maybe the cradle has a crack in it. Mine took a big impact from a boat collision & never yielded.

There is no cradle in a '73 Martinique. CC didnt start using cradles until 1980 in the Ski Nautique. Most models had them by the mid 80's.

I have not found any other metal pylon supports on the boats Ive torn into. The only thing holding them in is the bolt at the cup in the hull. The floor provides some support, but that metal trim ring used in the 60's and early 70's is not structural. A little bit of slop in the pylon seems pretty normal to me- it will only be as tight as the hole in the floor where it passes through. It wasnt until ~1976 that CC started putting flanges for the pylon to bolt/sandwich the floor for extra reinforcement.