I'm replacing the drive arm of my Alpha autopilot, and discovered that the glassed-in bracket that holds the drive arm isn't quite parallel with the drive arm itself. The old one has worked fine for many years but I suspect the rubber bushings holding the arm onto the bracket have been worn excessively because of the misalignment. By slipping 5 washers under the two bolts holding the inboard side of the base, and 2 under the bolts on the outboard side, I got it close to true.

It's easy to fair the visible surface of the bracket so the washers lie flat, but the hidden side is somewhat inaccessible; it's hard enough to get a hand and a wrench back there. Also, it's an uneven surface and there is a supporting brace running down the lower middle of the backside. The washers and nuts could be tightened and would certainly hold well enough, but it bugs me knowing they would be bearing at a slight angle and trying to bend the bolts.

I'm considering slipping a rubber washer on first, then a SS washer, then the nut. The rubber washer would presumably absorb some of the unevenness. Another idea is to pour some West into a pan tilted at an angle, then use a hole saw to drill out washers that are tapered. As long as I orient the washers properly in relation to their thick/thin side this should work reasonably well enough.

Has anyone come up with a better solution? It must be a fairly common issue on boats.

Thanks