Pre-Alpha - 3.0 Alignment After Gimbal Bearing Change

Hello folks,

I know I have seen threads on here regarding this issue, but damned if I can find them, or ones with enough info.

Last year I changed out my coupler. I checked the alignment before and after I pulled the motor out, and everything lined up perfectly. I had to completely re-align the motor after the coupler as somewhere along the way the setting on the mount went way out. Still no issues then.

This year I changed the gimbal bearing along with bellows and such. I decided to get all of the proper purpose made tools for pulling and re-installing the bearing. That part went abnormally smooth The bearing went in and bottomed out exactly as described in the threads here. However, I cannot get the alignment correct now. Originally I had never changed the setting on the front engine mount and it seemed way off. So, I changed the front mount, all the way down and gradually raised it. The bar seemed to go in a bit easier, but it I put too much on it it would get stuck. Since the bar should slide in with little force when aligned properly I don't see the sense in forcing it in if the alignment it off, besides, the bar gets stuck easily enough and this is frustrating.

I have tried tapping the bar while it is in the bearing as described in some other posts but it doesn't make any difference.

Other than the front mount, the only other variable here is the bearing. Any ideas on lining this thing up would be great. Even some direction to posts that I may have missed.

Thanks...

Re: Pre-Alpha - 3.0 Alignment After Gimbal Bearing Change

The inside of the gimbal bearing has to be man handled a bit to line up with the coupler, even if it's only 1/2" into the coupler. Then you can bump the alignment bar around to center the gimbal bearing, (it may take a few tries to get it in final position). If the alignement was Ok before, it should be with a new bearing.

Here may be the other threads you were thinking about, from the adults only sticky.
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=2971085

Re: Pre-Alpha - 3.0 Alignment After Gimbal Bearing Change

Thank you Don for your info. Those were the resources I was looking for originally.

So for some reason, I am still having difficulties. I can get it set up to where I can get a 1/2" of the bar into the coupler itself. So I am assuming that the orientation of the bearing itself is correct from tapping on the sides of the alignment bar. So I am adjusting the front mount up and down as far as it will go, and I cannot get the bar to go in anymore than that 1/2", which is somewhere in the middle of the height adjustment of the front mount, and I lose that if I go any higher or lower. Frustrated, I pulled the bearing out of the gimbal ring and slid the alignment bar into the coupler, bottoming it out easily. I slid the bearing over the bar and it went on easily. I put them both back together, and my same issue comes back. There has to be a simple solution here, and I must be missing one piece of the puzzle here.

I know that hitting the bar, I did see a fair bit of lateral movement downwards, my question is, how much is too much, and when should I know that the bearing is correct before moving on to adjusting the front mount?

When I did alignment last year, I originally had it done by a retired marine mechanic. He replaced my gimbal bearing for me then and aligned the engine and installed the outdrive. As I had a few problems later, I decided that I needed to learn this stuff myself or it would get quite expensive. I had to change my rear mounts last year, and coupler which I got to actually realign the engine myself, with plenty of advice from Don actually! Then however, I was still aligning with the same bearing in place as when I had that mechanic do the original alignment. I would imagine once I get this figured out, the next one will be a snap, in relation at least!

Thanks again Don for the reply. Thank you to anyone as well for any input.