Gimbal bolt pattern issue

[Mfgresttore]

I have a 1972 sea ray 220 srv c.c donor boat, has the 165 up inline 6, and pre alpha drive. My wife somehow managed to get a new HIN and title for a 1978 sea ray srv 220 OV !! The 1978 is perfect except had no motor or drive, (it was meant to be a donor for the 72, but it's in much better shape) so I pulled the drive train for the 1972, and am finding the bolt holes on the gimble don't match the 78. The guy I got it from took the gimble, it was a mercruiser , bolt now would like to know what motors and drives came on this 1978 boat so I can maybe do some trading to get the right setup. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Bt Doctur]

If your old drive used SS pins to hold the retainers in , then that housing was updated also what is the width of the motor mount holes.on the flywheel housing? The `78 flywheel cover with not mate up to the IL6 flywheel cover.

 

[Mfgresttore]

I have nothing for, and no info about the 78, I don't see any motor mount give a ways like it was an inline, or a v? Motor.. I want to put the running 72 drive train into the 78.. I know there's engine mount work to do, but from what I read, the 78 should have had an alpha drive, and that the pre alpha gimble holes were the same. I will just redo the transom and start over if need be, but it seems that the second row of bolts from top, are just slightly off, same with the rest heading to bottom of the gimble. I guess I'm just wondering what drive may have been in there, I do a lot of trading, and I'm sure I can get the correct set up, if only I can figure out what it may have been

 

[GA_Boater]

Pictures would help show what you're dealing with.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... Yer seein' the difference 'tween the early, 'n late MC-1 transom change,.....

Just drill the holes ya need, 'n put yer driveline in,....

 

[fishrdan]

I put a 72 140HP Mercruiser in a boat that originally came with a 2003 Alpha1 Gen2.

Did as Bondo posted, drilled 2 extra holes in the correct location and it bolted up fine. I filled the 2 un-needed holes with JB Weld.

I had to lower the front engine mount about an inch, to get proper engine alignment. Luckily my front engine mount was a 4' chunk of steel angle, easy to cut and weld to lower it.

 

[Mfgresttore]

Thanks for the replays, sorry late getting back on also.
I decided to just Redhill the new holes so it comes through the rear of the transom, and going to use that as a guide and rebuild the transom while the engine is out. Didn't even think about the engine height maybe lower to align.. so I'll double check that and measure transom wall thickness before I set it all up. I wheel and deal all the time, so for the 2 23 ft sea rays, both with trailers, and a good running motor, I have a grand total of $350 bucks into this so far lol. Add $100 more to ditch the old hull, but not wanting to cut corners on the bones.. so it'll probably take some time as my schedule is extreme and I'm out of town a lot, but the family is into helping to fix it also. Wife is shining up the chrome and even found a gorgeous mahogany steering wheel for it. So I want it to be safe, then reliable then fun. In that order. I've been reading these forums for years, and it helped me restore my 1967 16' MFG, (hence the name) and I sold that for 3 times what I had into it that's to you guys. This is just a much larger scale for me, and I was double checking. Thank you all