transom plate

I have a 1978 23' Glassply in excelent condition except for loose splines on the Mercruiser transom to outdrive connection. The boat has a 260 horse set up with 700hrs. other than than the slop and wandering this gives an otherwise great boat everything else works fine. can anyone suggest which of the newer style transom assemblies I should switch to with the potential of being able to upgrade my outdrive later if needed? I cant remember what outdrive I have, 885??? but would like to be able to switch to a stronger unit down the road and would like to avoid having to cut into my transom. The boat has power stering too so I would like to keep the same inner transom assbly intact. thx all

Re: transom plate

Without inner and outter transon assembly replacement the only drive you could upgrade to would be an Alpha drive.

Re: transom plate

If you stick with the older Mod.1 Transom Assembley,.....
You can Up-grade to an Alpha Drive at anytime......

If you Up-grade to the Alpha 1 Transom Assembley,....
You'll end up changing the Rear Motor Mount(aka. the Flywheel Cover),+ the engine Coupler,....
And Possibly the Y-pipe,.....
That's just to get everything to Line Up........

You can Up-grade to Any of the Alpha drives, up to, but Not including the Alpha 1, Gen.II.....
The Gen.II uses a Totally Different Transom Assembley.....

Btw,.......
I've found the Early Alpha 1 Transom Assemblies to be the Better 1s,.....
The 1983/4s have a Grease Zert in All the Right Places,....
The Newer the Assemblies,.... The Fewer Zerts there are,.....
It Seems the Newest 1s have almost No Grease Zerts.......

Re: transom plate

thanks to both of you for the input!