BryanTuvell

Olemiss, during a routine check of my alignment found that my passenger side front motor mount nut had moved, causing a gap.
Make sure the tab is bent after adjusting. Mine wasn't.
I got lucky and coupler was not worn.

Good luck and keep us posted.
Bryan

olemissalum

Will let you know after I adjust both ways I guess. Also, how do you get at the coupler to grease it, I can see Zerk fittings through the gimble bearing hole, but do I have to remove bellows, housing, etc.. to get at them?? Any help appreciated.

blue thunder

If you look down behind the back of the engine the two coupler grease zerks are accessible. These need to be greased as least 2 times per season so make sure you find them!

Oh yeah, I like formula 31s idea with the 1" shafting material. Will help get you in the ballpark. Right now sounds like you are standing out in the parking lot

BT

US1 Fountain

iTrader: (1)

Actually, the front of motor is to low. With the motor sitting front low, that will tilt the coupler forward and make the bottom of the splines 1st to make contact and leave marks.

olemissalum,

If the motor mounts are of the screw/post type, look to see if there is a gap under the top lock nut. If so, that means 99% of the time that the lower adjusting nuts have screwed down= lowering the front of the motor out of alignment. DO NOT turn the top nuts. Turn the lower nuts until they raise the motor mounts back up against the top lock nut tight. Most of the time this puts the motor back in alignment, or at least very close to where the tool will go in fore a fine, final adjusting.

If the above condition is not the case, or if you have on offshore mount, 1st check for worn splines. With the drive removed, reach inside the coupler from the motor compartment and feel the splines themselves. (Be careful) If very sharp and pointed with possible aluminum slivers, the coupler splines will be distorted so much that even in perfect alignment, the tool will not enter. My point is that the tool will never enter as the splines are smaller than the tool now, so you will never get it aligned. Make a VISUAL and check by feel, before trying the tool itself. Worn splines will be pointed, sharp and non even in thickness between the tooth of the spline, and the groove of the spline.

As far as the grease zerks:
Done from inside motor compartment.
They are accesed by leaning over the top of the motor and rotating the motor until the zerk is pointed up.
Grease that zerk, then rotate motor 180* to grease 2nd one.

rbtnt

US1 Fountain, thanks for the correction, I was thinking about the coupler being the pivot point.

olemissalum

Thanks guys for the information. I have looked at the splines on the coupler and they look fine, no deformations and everything looks good, atleast to me but what do I know

Active Mike

What do you do if you have offshore mounts and there is no adjustment?
I removed a 12' Stelling box and I'm putting things back to original? I have not got to the point to where I'm going to gather with the outer gimble ring but it is one of my concerns. Would the line up be any different?

RedDog382

I would never recommend using a rubber mallet or any other type of hammer on the alignment tool. When correctly aligned, you should be able to insert the alignment tool until it seats firmly into the coupler and you should then be able to turn it freely with only two fingers. If it binds at all, you are still slightly out of alignment. I also had a problem on my boat with one engine torqued out of alignment R/L(or port/starboard). It was really frustrating until I figured out the problem after two Mercury certified marine mechanics couldn't get the alignment right.

blue thunder

You can indeed have perfect alignment yet not be able to get the alignment tool to slide into the coupler. This happens when the inner race of the gimbal bearing gets inadvertantly moved out of alignment or a new bearing is installed. When this happens it is a commonly accepted practice to tap perpendicular to the axis of the tool in all four directions to align the spherical part of the bearing. Don't read this as parrellel with the tool in which you would be driving the tool into the coupler.

BT

marinetrans

Sometimes after we put a new coupler on and the motor is in,we crank over the motor a couple of times.
This helps straighten it if its a little off center in the rubber. Case beening if you just can't seem to align the motor after using full adjustment up and down.