I think your saying to check if there is too much grease (causing kind of a suction lock), I'll double check that, but it doesn't seem excessive to me. The alignment still doesn't seem perfect to me, and not as good as it was before replacing the bearing. I had to tap the alignment tool into the coupler the last inch or two with a hammer to get it to fully seat (this is mainly why I think that's my problem). I did give the alignment tool a few moderate whacks with a hammer in each direction as well (sides, top/bottom, but more so the bottom as that appears to be the angle that's binding). Once it was fully seated though it spun freely. When I was installing the outdrive, and got stuck the last 3/4", I tried the Mer-Kick method of a few good kicks on the back of the outdrive. This did not get in any further though, and it basically stuck where it was. I actually couldn't get it back off by hand and had use the method of reinstalling the trim rams and a block of wood on top, then raising the trim to pop the drive back off. So, that too seems to indicate to me sort of a friction bind in the coupler/splines (meaning the splines are partially engaged and aligned rotationally, but misaligned longitudinally) due to slight misalignment. Meaning, if it was just stuck on a lip or something it should have come right back out easily, but sticking in place i can picture the driveshaft may be getting jammed that last 3/4". I'm pretty leery of using the nuts/bolts to suck it in, in my experience with transmissions that's usually a good way to ruin things.
