3.0 litre mercruiser engine alignment

[dazid1]

I have had problems alighning my engine with the gimble.
I have now got the correct bolts and spacers and looking through the gimble its spot on, I have a spare drive shaft with the universal joints on it and am using it as an alinment tool, I can push it about 1 and a half inches and then it stops, it needs to go another inch, the splines are ok and the spare shaft I have got goes all the wayb into a spare drive I have on another engine!!!! I cant understand because it looks spot on, how critical is is do I have to make a proper aligner can anyone help.
Cheers
Daz

 

[Bondo]

Re: 3.0 litre mercruiser engine alignment

the spare shaft I have got goes all the wayb into a spare drive I have on another engine!!!!

And when you get the Alignment Right,........

It'll slide Into the Gimbel Bearing Just as Easy..........

 

[Don S]

Re: 3.0 litre mercruiser engine alignment

I cant understand because it looks spot on, how critical is is do I have to make a proper aligner can anyone help.

There is no way you can eyeball it close enough, if it's not going in all the way easily, You will not only have a hard time getting the drive all the way on, but you coupling will not last very long at all. Then you will have to pull the engine back out and replace the coupler. It's very critical to get the alignment done properly if you want the coupler to last.
You may have bad rear mounts, did you check them? Do they look like the rubber is seperating from the outer or inner ring of the rear mount. What year is your engine? Are you sure all the hardware is there? If you did replace the mounts, you probably have the new style mounts and they take different hardware.
Here is the old style hardware.

 

[dazid1]

Re: 3.0 litre mercruiser engine alignment

The engine is an 1984, I used the bellhousing off the old engine though, I changed one of the bushes as it looked a bit worn, and fitted it with new bolts springs and washers as per your diagram.
Is it possible to look spot on but still be that far out, that it won,t push in? I can understand the importance of getting it right, I have removed the front mounting and placed a scissor jack there just to see if I can get the shaft to push in but it doesn't seem to make any difference whatever I do?????

D

 

[Don S]

Re: 3.0 litre mercruiser engine alignment

Is it possible to look spot on but still be that far out, that it won,t push in?

Yes, like I said, eyeballing it will not work.

You really should have replaced BOTH mounts, not just one, the other one may be a bit softer than the new one and you won't get it right...... ever.
Second, since you replaced only one mount, you probably have a new style mount on the new one you installed, and they have different hardware.
They don't use the double lock washer, and you may or may not need a spacer washer.

 

[dazid1]

Re: 3.0 litre mercruiser engine alignment

I would just like to finish this off in case anyone has the same problem. I made a tool as per the instructions that I got in another thread, and sorted it. It was lined up by rach of the eye, what i didn,t know and was not pointed out to me was that the gimble bearing can move, almost like a downlighter you may have in a ceiling, and it just needed moving ever so slightly and it went straight in.
Thanks to all that tried to help.
Regards
DARREN