lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

[marvinjansen]

I have an alignment bar now and it seems I need to lower the front of the engine (straight 6) more than the adjustment nut will allow. I can swap the lower and upper nut since it is a tad thinner. Any other suggestions?

 

[vxtech]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

i had the same problem turned out to be bad rear motor mount bushings

 

[marvinjansen]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

I think you are right. pulled one rear bushing and now need to figure out what's supposed to be there

 

[NHGuy]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

The manual has the motor mount assembly in detail. With that you can check your parts condition and sequence.

 

[marvinjansen]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

the manual shows steel washer, spacer, special split lockwasher and large fiber washer. It doesn't show the rubber bushing that I saw on another site. I wonder if that bushing is supposed to be part of the aluminum mount? It seems that the mount is just for side play. the up and down is pretty solid with spacers and the split lock washer. I thot it might be a little spring, but the manual says to torque it to 35-40 #s. so I am going to look and see if something else is making the rear of the engine lower than it is supposed to be. this project is making me appreciate the simplicity of my sailboat.

 

[ziggy]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

I wonder if that bushing is supposed to be part of the aluminum mount?

here's that bushing for ya.

sorry about the dusty cover.

so I am going to look and see if something else is making the rear of the engine lower than it is supposed to be.

fwiw, i always felt i was a little low in back too. my alignments just felt that way. last summer i R&R the fiber washers while i was R&Ring the oil pan. the old fiber washers looked flattened to me. my alignment is now satisfactory. R&Ring them fiber washers was all i did different when i re installed the engine.

 

[marvinjansen]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

that makes sense replacing the fiber washers because if they are flattened it will lower the rear. I will get two of them to replace the ones below the engine mount.

 

[marvinjansen]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

Just got back from L n L Marine, good local Mercruiser dealer. He couldn't find fiber washers in parts list. Will go to boat salvage yard and find some good ones on a little used 4 cylinder. If someone knows the part number or source let me know.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

If the fiber washers looked flattened it`s because the rear mounts have collapsed/ shifted internally lowering the rear of the motor. Replacing the rear bushings is the only alternative

 

[Don S]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

I have an alignment bar now and it seems I need to lower the front of the engine (straight 6) more than the adjustment nut will allow.

I know you changed your gimbal bearing, did you ever set the inner part of the gimbal bearing to the coupler BEFORE trying to align it.
Did the alignment bar even start into the coupler, perhaps 3/4 to 1" before binding?
The gimbal bearing is not automatically aligned when installed, you have to do that.

As BT said, that fiber washer is NOT an engine support, it's only there to prevent metal to metal contact when the rubber mounts allow the engine to flex during high torque and rough running. If new fiber washers fixed it, something else was wrong and the new washers just covered it up.

The OEM part number for those fiber washers is 12-32834 but that is not your alignment problem.

One other point, be sure of which rear mounts you get. If you get OEM mounts, the mounting hardware changes and you really need to follow the instructions that come with them. IF you get aftermarket, they are USUALLY the old style mounts.

 

[marvinjansen]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

the alignment bar has gone in all the way with a little pushing and tapping with rubber hammer. On the gimbal bearing, I did tap on 4 sides of the bar after it was inserted into the coupler spline, is that enough or should it move more freely? pattern on the tip shows splines on the top and no spline marks on the bottom. Doesn't this mean the front of the motor needs to go down? I have it down all it will go even swapping the two nuts to lower a little more. I tried moving it up and the alignment is worse.
the split lock washers, they look like a spring. Do they collapse when torqued to 35-40#s or are they a spring?
the bushing looks to be pressed in. How do you get them out and what aligns them when they are installed? I looked at the SM and can't find much about this. Did I miss the right manual site?

 

[Don S]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

When you put the alignment bar in, you need to tap around the OD of the alignment bar as you go through the process. This makes sure the adjustment hasn't changed the gimbal bearing alignment too.
As far as your mounts, I have no idea if you even got the complete mount out of the housing yet, none of us can see what you have done, when you say you removes one mount, we can only assume you have all of it.
Here is what they should look like. Aluminum on the OD of the mount.

 

[marvinjansen]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

I don't have the mounts or bushings out. only the bolt, washer, spacer, split lock washer and fiber washer. those bushings in the picture, can they be driven out in place without removing the motor? What determines their position when installed?

 

[marvinjansen]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

Looked at it closer and I bet the bushing or mount is supposed to be even with the top and bottom edge of the housing. mine isn't even but a little lower, maybe slipped. how do they go in, driven? any allen screw or way to lock it in place? I think they may be able to be pulled out with a slide hammer since I have access from above in this boat. Or can I just move the existing mount up to the proper location unless it is the inner metal tube that has slipped from the surrounding rubber cushion?

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

you need to remove the motor , remove the rear cover. most can be pressed in untill seated but sometimes you need to burn the old ones out. New ones may come in 2 types ,old style (bushing smooth on both ends) and new style, (bushing is knurled). new type does not use the split ring .
may not be for your motor but page 3A-10 shows the bushing and spacer and direction to install
http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Servmanl/13/13A3R2.PDF

 

[marvinjansen]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

Thanks for the proper way to fix it. I was discouraged about pulling the motor at this time so I did replace one fiber washer and put it back together. was then able to adjust enough to get the bar to slide right in and out and have an even pattern all the way around. when I have to pull the motor I will replace the mounts with the newer style. Have drive on and ready to put in lube and try it out.

 

[Don S]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

You can NOT use that fiber washer to adjust engine height. Your new one is going to crush down very quickly and you will be out of alignment again.
You suddenly went from doing everything carefully to throw caution to the wind and full speed ahead. Right or wrong, and between this, your grinding the ujoints, and forcing the drive on, we aren't done hearing from you by a long shot.

 

[ziggy]

Re: lowering engine for drive alignment MC 165 in Aristocraft 19

Have drive on and ready to put in lube and try it out.

way to go mj. be sure and take lots of pics of your cool blue nineteen...

you must be down south. water around here is still hard... getting close to thawing though..