Engine alignment

[midnightrider1818]

Well I'm on to engine alignment now. Kind of wish I would have done this while I still had bell housing and manifolds elbows off. Here is my dilemma. I had heavy spline contact on top and barely on bottom. Also installed new gimbal bearing and yes I align that with coupler everytime i adjust mounts. Anyways, I could get bar in but it went in hard. I moved front of motor down probably 5 turns on each mount maybe even 6 lost count. Spline contact is better still a little light on bottom and bar is going in easier but definately not with 2 fingers but a slight pressure. Wants to come out alot harder for some reason. Not sure if grease is hanging up on seal or what. I also noticed port mount is lower then starboard mount. What I mean lower is bottom adjusting nut. Is this normal?. Also what I did is mark bottom nuts relative with motor mounts to keep even. I am not using a hoist as nuts are moving very easily. Up and down. Just curious as why I'm having a hard time setting alignment and why I am having to go down so many turns. Cant get to back mounts to check condition with manifolds on but everything else seems good. Any pointers

 

[alldodge]

Your probably at an angle, measuring the front mounts doesn't help and can throw it off. Need to raise the front of the motor from the thermostat housing, then raise the bottom nuts to where they contact the mounts, this is the starting point.

 

[midnightrider1818]

Ok that's what I will do I will get a hook on her and get her lifted. Engine coupler may not be completely true as well. Will find out after I get a hoist on eye thanks man

 

[muc]

Engine coupler may not be completely true as well.

This is something you should have already checked. Rotate engine 1/4 turn 3 times, checking grease pattern after each turn

 

[tank1949]

I have performed this too da---- many times. If u installed a new gimbal bearing, u may have bumped the center to where it is not perfectly aligned with its outer race. This will cause you headaches! You will have to find a way to center it. Try using alignment tool to see if you can flex the center of the bearing. New bearings are stiff more so than ones that heve been in the boat for years. I have experienced too much grease causing suction when pulling out alignment tool which seemed to suggest alignment was way off. Grease accumulated behind bearing and coupler splines. It wasn't binding at all. Too much grease! Have you tried using a sissors jack to raise and lower engine? A small sissors jack should provide finer adjusting vs bottle jack or coffin hoist. U can put a small block of wood between oil pan and jack. However, make sure transom is not rotten and mounts for front of engine are not on rotten wood. If u can tighten lag screws on front mounts, u should have hard wood. Good luck!

 

[harringtondav]

"Two Fingers" is OK for Tequila, but I've never achieved it when aligning. If my alignment tool bottoms out with even coupler spline grease marks, I button things up and go boating. I suspect the resistance is from very slight 'self adjusting' gimbal bearing misalignment in it's alum. hsg., or grease drag on the tool or bearing. 23 yrs and no misalignment related failures.

 

[midnightrider1818]

"Two Fingers" is OK for Tequila, but I've never achieved it when aligning. If my alignment tool bottoms out with even coupler spline grease marks, I button things up and go boating. I suspect the resistance is from very slight 'self adjusting' gimbal bearing misalignment in it's alum. hsg., or grease drag on the tool or bearing. 23 yrs and no misalignment related failures.

I agree man. I have been aligning boat motor now for 4 hrs. Still not two fingers. Bar goes in pretty easy seems to come out a little harder for some reason. Even spline Mark's all the way around. I might try to get it a little closer Tom or next day but I'm happy with it now. Believe coupler may be a little out of round from being ran out of alignment but not bad. Pretty sure she will be fine. What a job that is. Got the bar stuck in there once. Holy $$## took me probably a half hr to get it out.