I replaced gimball bearing last season. Checked and adjusted alignment last year. Thought I had it pretty good at the that time. This year, I pulled the drive for annual maintenance, checked alignment, and found it off pretty noticeably. It's taking the grease off the top splines pretty good. Before I go and start moving the engine again, i decided to do a bit of internet searching.

I found there is a procedure that you take the alignment bar, engage it into the coupler, and tap the end with a mallet in the four directions to "set the gimball". I did not do that upon installation. What is the point of this? I know the gimball bearing can move in the outter ring, but it was straight when installed. Isn't moving the angle of that bearing in the ring just masking the problem of alignment being off? I'm curious if this has something to do with why my alignment is off after running it for 30 hrs. I was getting a noticeable vibration from the port engine last year, and i'm guessing this has something to do with it.