I just purchased a 2005 Formula 353 Fastec with twin 525's. The engines are a rigid mount set up and the package has Bravo 1 XR drives. I had both drives pulled and found the port side outdrive slightly out of alignment. The alignment tool was slightly difficult to get to bottom out into the drive coupler and somewhat difficult to extract. With a flashlight, looking into the coupler, you could barely see that the drive was slightly misaligned, (from the factory I would assume). My question is, what do you do with a ridged mount set up like this when it is misaligned? Also, how do you determine if you need to do anything at all at this point?

The engine has 136 hours on it with no apparent problems to date. The drive was a little difficult to get back on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If it is out of alignment I am surprised it hasn't chewed up U-joints constantly if it is TRULY out of alignment.

You couldn't move the gimbal bearing enough to get it corrected?

Have the engines ever been out? If so were they put back in without the fiber washers on the rear mounts?

The adjustment is made at the front of the motor. Try taking a closer look at the mounting. You may need to make holes oval shaped to allow up and down movement. The alignment tool should be easy to put in and take out.

It sounds like it is only off a very tiny amount. You may be able to just loosen the bolts on the engine mounts and use something to lift or lower the engine slightly. You may need to drill the holes out as Smitty said.

If its off a small bit just crank the alignment tool a bit, that should pivot the bearing.. thats the advice I got here a few weeks ago.. worked like a charm

Thanks to all. I have some good ideas of what to look for here!