mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

[84EdH]

Re: mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

bolo, once the alignment tool goes in and out smoothly, the grease does not mean a thing. grease only helps get you to the point of easy sliding of the tool. if, as you say, you turn the engine through 90 degree turns and still have easy movement, next step is to tighten the top nuts on the front mounts, and then check that the alignment has not changed (it should not). if you tighten the top nuts on the front mounts and the alignment does change, one of the front bottom nuts was too low (and not holding equal weight as the other side bottom nut). if this happens, loosen top nuts again, adjust the bottom nut on one side up, get easy slide of bar, then tighten top nuts on front mounts again. alignment should stay the same when you get it right and your done!

which side to raise? at the point your satisfied with the alignment before you tighten top nuts, just tighten one side top nut. check alignment. if no change, and then you tighten opposite side top nut and it does change, that is the side that has to come up.

 

[bolo78910]

Re: mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

Thanks guys very helpfull tips. And yea the reason i did not slap the tool before is bec when i got the boat the drive was installed. So i thought the bearing was already seath. But i must hav disturb it when i took the drive off. Thank much guys

 

[alldodge]

Re: mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

Glad it worked out. Sure got a bunch of exercise climbing in and out of the boat. Been doing that a bunch myself over the last few days.

Hope the rest of your season goes without a hitch

 

[bolo78910]

Re: mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

last update, after playing aroud with the alignment again its getting better, from all 90 degree angles, one prob i still have about three spline marks diect on the starboard side , i red a few post where don stated to loose up the front mound log bolts completly and re drill new holes if i had to. thats my next move . so iff am touching starboard do i push the engine port?? or push stboard. have to get it complete tomoro sat. thanks

 

[alldodge]

Re: mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

last update, after playing aroud with the alignment again its getting better, from all 90 degree angles, one prob i still have about three spline marks diect on the starboard side , i red a few post where don stated to loose up the front mound log bolts completly and re drill new holes if i had to. thats my next move . so iff am touching starboard do i push the engine port?? or push stboard. have to get it complete tomoro sat. thanks

Hi Bolo
I'm thinking your drive shaft should have been pulled, alignment checked a long time ago. It sat a long time as it was and has created a set with the rubber in the coupler being a bit off center. With that, if it was mine I would leave it where you have it and install the drive. You have worked very hard to get it as centered as possible and appears to me you have done it. With the drive back on it will give it time and will probably center it self. If it doesn't you will have a failure and need to replace the coupler, but this is where you were going when you started the thread.

 

[Bondo]

Re: mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

last update, after playing aroud with the alignment again its getting better, from all 90 degree angles, one prob i still have about three spline marks diect on the starboard side , i red a few post where don stated to loose up the front mound log bolts completly and re drill new holes if i had to. thats my next move . so iff am touching starboard do i push the engine port?? or push stboard. have to get it complete tomoro sat. thanks

Ayuh,.... Usually you can shake the motor over, 'n bolt it down, Without redrillin' any holes,...

 

[84EdH]

Re: mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

bolo, if the bar shows marks starboard (at the back of the engine), push the FRONT of the engine starboard, which should move the BACK of the engine port. I do this my loosening front lag bolts a bit, get a bar ( a big one) to leverage the engine front (starboard in your case), and drop a wooden wedge between engine mount and bilge area wall to hold the engine in this "shoved over to the side" position long enough to tighten the lag bolts. the front mounts that the lags go through have a slot on one end to allow for a bit of sideways adjustment.

That being said, as I said earlier when you are VERY close to perfect alignment, I the grease marks mean very little. as you have seen by now, just how straight you pull the bar out can influence how the marks read. my approach with equalizing the alignment in 90 degree turns is this: mark the harmonic balancer at 12:00. set the alignment, then turn the engine to move the mark to 6:00. set alignment. then do 3 and 9. if setting 12-6, makes either 12 or 6 not slide as easy, split the difference between both 12 and 6 for best compromise, do same for 3-9. When I did mine, after bumping engine front over a bit, this got me perfect

 

[bolo78910]

Re: mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

alldodge i think u hit it, someone told me the same thing i will just get it as close as possible . drive will be going on now and thanks for everything ,time to go get them stripers lol.

 

[bolo78910]

Re: mercruiser 454 alignment kicking brain

ok its all done i get the tool to slid in real easy at all angles. thanks too all who make it possible . god bless