Hunting for Gen 1 SN

[HPwannabe]

Hi all,
I've been hunting for the serial number on my Alpha1 gen1. I've read all the guides that say there's a tag somewhere on the upper gear housing. I have found nothing. My ultimate reason for trying to track it down is that I understand there was a change in how the input (yoke) bearing preload is set, and I don't know when this change took place. But there is a clue that it has to do with whether the bearing spacer includes the smaller inner spacer. On all the Alpha parts drawings I've seen, the inner spacer is there. When I disassembled mine, there was no inner spacer. Here are some pictures of the housing, and the bearing assy. Is there another location where I might find the SN? I see a number stamped into the very top of the housing under the lid. That is S-L-F SLD-1. Does that give any clues?
Are all Gen1s set with the torque at 80 ft-lbs, and the alternate method is for Gen2s? Did some hack (me) just forget to put the inner spacer in there last time it was reassembled?
Thanks much.

 

[Bt Doctur]

If your the original owner is this a GEN II ?. If the upper gears were replaced the new type says leave it out and use rolling torque method. I prefer to leave it in place and just torque the nut down.
Serial number should be visable in the mercruiser decal If the decal has been replaced , remove it and scrape the paint
If you did forget it and torqued it to 80 , the shaft would not turn

 

[Bt Doctur]

 

[HPwannabe]

View attachment 349779

Thanks. All the references I read say it’s on the stb side, which is why I scraped off the decal on that side. Dang.

 

[HPwannabe]

If your the original owner is this a GEN II ?. If the upper gears were replaced the new type says leave it out and use rolling torque method. I prefer to leave it in place and just torque the nut down.
Serial number should be visable in the mercruiser decal If the decal has been replaced , remove it and scrape the paint
If you did forget it and torqued it to 80 , the shaft would not turn

That is why I disassembled it - it was extremely tight. I’m amazed the bearings look as good as they do. It’s a gen 1. I am original owner - well it was originally my dad but I’ve done the maintenance (unless he had stuff done while I wasn’t looking). I have new bearings coming. But now it sounds like I have a choice of installing with or without. I kind of hate to replace them because that will mean having to set the gear play, which requires another special tool…
Oh well, probably better safe than sorry.

 

[Bt Doctur]

without the inner small ring you must use the rolling torque method or find a small ring and install it and then just torque it