removing alpha drive ?
 

I am taking off the starboard side lower unit in the process of replacing the gimbal ring. Does the shifter lever have to be in the forward position or reverse? i read it being done both ways. working on 94 scarab with twin 350 with alpha one gen 2 drives agiain on the starboard side. Thanks

full forward

ok thanks

Check your impeller while you're there.

fixx
 

when removing yes as stated in forward gear...try not to touch the prop after removing,take a note which direction the prop locks when in gear,one Way will ratchet and the other way will lock,take a note which direction locks because you may need to turn the input shaft to line up the splines with the coupler,also pack the splines with merc spline Greece b4 installing the drive.

if you so happen to spin the prop it will knock the drive out of gear,then you will have to lock it back into forward gear and turn the shifting foot that is on the front side of the drive under the u joints,this little foot has to be facing forward or you will not be able to get the drive on all the way..

pull on the prop as if you were backing the boat up. holds the drive in forward gear.

Ok hooded on to the boat today to start working on it tomorrow. My next question is that when I raise my lower units all the way (trailer) the bolts that hold the bar on that connects the lower units together hit the housing where it says alpha on up top. This causing a little gouge on each side of the housing. I am replacing the gimbal ring and using the jr marine gimbal kit and I don't want it to hit the cover plate and gouge it. Is there a way to keep them from coming up quiet so high??

fixx
 

the only way to keep the tie bar from moving is to either thenten the pi$$ out of the nuts the ane saddles are attached to or if you have the saddles that are shaped like a house which move around as little,replace them with the square style that bravos have,,i dont know it they make that style for alphas but you can check with your tiebar mfr and see if they have a fix for it.

Exact instructions can be found online with great pics. Sterdrives.com? I think?

Its not the tie bar that's movimg and gouging the housing it is the bolts that come off the top of the drive then the tie bar sits on the drive then there are nuts holding the tie bar to the top of the drive. The nuts are what are catching the housing when the drives are all the way up in trailer mode. If the drives are up perfectly straight its fine but if drive are turnes ar all they hit

Have you looked into if a saddle style tie bar would help your problem?

Ok I see ill have to check into it thanks

When I took the drive off the water line on the back lower half of the drive was not connected. It has a little white fitting and then a little fitting in the drive it looks like it suppost to snap in to. Are those suppost to b put together?? I assume so but I looked at my other drive and they are not connected either

Are you talking baout the 1/4 in lines? they are for the speedo hookup. You may have pee tubes (speedo hookup) attached to the transom for your speedo or are you using GPS speedometer

Ha well maybe speedo tubes bc speedo didn't work before. So ill hook them up and see

Ok gimbal bearing some say put them in with notches facing out so u can spin it and take it out some say don't do it that way. Tell me what u think and y?

ok, my tie bar is bolted to the back of my trim rams. are you saying your tie bar is bolted to the top cover of the uppers? my drives all way up i have an inch and a half of room between the drive tops and the transom shield where the upper steering pin is. if your tie bar plus brackets is right there, you are gonna run out of room. your tie bar also doesn't have as much leverage to hold drives parallel that far forward. that is only about 6 inches back from transom. i would look for the better setup that attaches to the lowers at the trim rams. in the mean time, all you can do is bump the drives back down a little from the up-stops. you might be able to take a grinder to the tops of the studs and maybe find a lower profile nut. or remove lock washers and spacers. does the bracket bolt to all 4 top cover bolts? if not, move it to the rear 2 top cover bolts.

didn't even see second page. i was replying to post 10. on the gimbal bearing, definately put it in so it can be flipped and removed. each time you press that cage into the alum housing the hole gets a little bigger. just watch where the grease hole is in relation to the groove in the cage when putting back that way.

Ok on the gimbal and yes the tie bar bolts in all 4 places so that was my temporary plan to find a lower nut and cut it down a bit just to prevent as much as possible. Thanks for all thr help