Get some good sealant. I personally like the 4200. 5200 is REALLY strong and has been known to pull gel coat off if you need to remove the thing. Make sure the holes are covered inside and out, then the bolts. Main trick is to hold the bolt still with a good wrench (and a good helper) while you tighten the locking nuts, so that you dont lose that seal you spent so much time preparing for. Last time I did this, I took a shotgun bore brush and scrubbed the inside of the holes which took out all the old sealant and cleaned things up in the holes pretty well.I tend to go a bit overboard here. IE a decent “dab” of sealant around the bolt holes inside and outside on transom, a similar dab around the bolt holes on the back of the jack plate. Repeat on the backing plates both in the splash well and inside the battery compartment. My intent was to make sure ZERO water got in that way. Note that this was on an older boat with a transom that had a plywood core, so leakage would have been fatal to it. Not a worry with BCB, but I would still seal it like I never planned on taking it off again. As the saying goes, preparation is 90% of the project. While the motor is hanging, clean the bracket of any chunks of RTV. Ditto for the transom back side, so that the jack plate will bolt up perfectly flush.Last edited by oldtimer57 on July 13th, 2017, 4:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200
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