Have worked on a lot of marine stuff but never an outdrive, 3 - 4 inches sounds excessive. Unless you are talking about slop in the push pull cabling system. And you are welcome about the bearings, in 50 years with trailors I have had problems only once. That was when I believed my neighbor that bearing buddys were good for a long time. I am now back to re packing twice a year. I do not clean out the grease from within the bearings unless there is a color change in the grease and I use grease of two different colors and alternate them so I know when I completely changed the grease.....jk