I recently helped my brother hang a Alpha Gen II sterndrive on a No 1 gimbal in place of a No 1 MerCruiser drive.

We followed our nose on this one and it worked out very well.
First we had to grind about 3/32" off the inside of the ears that extend out from the ram mounts. After that it was as simple as pluging the Gen II into the gimbal...the splines ligned right up. We ended up useing the shift linkage for the Gen II between the old gimbal and the Gen II drive to get the proper reach. After ajusting the shift cable and topping off the drive fluid we headed for the water.

We did this on a '84 Formula F3 with a 320 horse 350 Chevy.
Everything works perfectly.

I know the books say this can't be done but I'm here to tell you it can.

I'm considering doing this for the drives on my Formula 255 Liberator. Why do this? The Gen II is the new and improved Alpha and is more robust and has a more hydrodynamic shape than the Gen I...besides that...I think they look better and update the boat.

Sprink awesome little deal! 2 wks ago I took out my prop/prop shaft/ skeg on a rock shoal and decided to replace the outdrive with a used one rather than get a new/rebuilt lower now I'm wishing I went gen 2