Slight alignment change in yard

[Strecker25]

Hi all, have twin 5.7efi/alpha gen 2's in a 290 sundancer. I remove drives and check alignment every year. The alignment bar on the starboard slide goes in smooth with the satisfying clunk against the back of the coupler. The port side also goes in with 3 fingers and very little pressure, but there is slight friction in the last 1/8". It comes out smooth with little effort as well.

My question, is it possible to adjust alignment slightly in the yard without needing the support the engine as I see in many videos? I don't have a way to do that. The drive goes on just fine but knowing the starboard side is smoother bothers me so I'm leaning towards pulling the port drive again and getting it perfect, just not sure it can be done with a wrench only in the marina yard.

Thanks
Ryan

 

[superfets]

Could just be grease or something in that coupler. How does it look when you pull it out. Is the alignment good. The last 1/8" would not indicate miss alignment to me. I wouldn't worrie about it. But I'm not an expert yet. Lets see what they think.

Cheers

 

[Strecker25]

Bar looks pretty good on the way out and spline marks are relatively even all around. you could be right on the grease idea, I make sure to grease yearly and we only run 50-60 hours a year so there could be some left in there

 

[Scott06]

Yes you can adjust with a 1 1/16" wrench no problem, but with what you describe it would not worry about it. Not all of them are text book perfect. That last little bit is probably grease build up in there