Long story short. Upper gears went out on the Alpha One. Found what was advertised on CL as a complete alpha one for $350. Bought it..guy delivered me a pre alpha. Since I wasnt there to inspect the drive and see what was delivered ,when I did find out it was not an alpha one I contacted the guy right away and he said he accidently brought the wrong one and will get me the alpha the following day. That was 3 weeks ago and now he isnt returning my calls, so I am stuck with a pre alpha. A mechanic said the pre alpha is ok to use and same thing as what I had as long as they are the same gear. Is this true or is there something else I need to do install?

As long as nothing is a Gen II alpha, then yes, the Pre-alpha will bolt up to the alpha gimbal and the alpha lower will bolt up to the pre-alpha upper. I ran into a similar issue last year, with our twin setup and had to runa pre-alpha on one side and alpha on the other (same ratio of course) . I now have a set of pre-alphas as back ups and have frequently used them while other things are getting done on the boat.

I am sure others will chime in as well, but I would think you should be fine.

Well that was my plan was to rebuild the upper on the alpha and keep the drive as a spare. Thanks for the info!