I see a lot of these units listed for 4 or 6 cylinders...leading me to question if there are multiple models of the outdrives or they are just listing what it came from behind.

so an Alpha is an Alpha??

the difference is Pre, Alpha I, etc...?

will any Alpha Lowercase boot up to any Alpha (or pre Alpha..)?

BTW! you guys are great, thanks for helping educate ... Google only helps so much.

http://i.imgur.com/sbTG6jg.jpg

This link is broken (denied Access)




http://i.imgur.com/A3jKWwS.jpg

Link works for me but here is the website. If you need one or 2 I can see about a slight price break. All dealers buy in at the same price. No one gets favors with SEI even if you were to buy 5000 units its still the same price. Not much mark up for dealers to carry on the shelf. Just saying.

www.sterndrive.cc

cool! thanks, I will check them out

http://i.imgur.com/W2Mv2cn.jpg

Ayuh,..... There's no such thing as a "Pre-Alpha" drive,....

There's the MC-1 drive, like yer's,...
Then the MC-1R,....
Then the MC-1MR,....
Then the Alpha 1,....

In '91, the Alpha 1, Gen.II came out, 'n the interchangeability ended,....

Here's a history of Merc drives,....

The earliest MC-1 drives had different splines on the shafts, 'n interchange only with themselves,....

'bout the mid/ late '70s, on, up to '91, All of 'em will interchange, either by the unit, ei; uppers interchange, or lowers interchange, or complete drives interchange, again up to '91, 'n the A1, Gen.IIs,....

Thank you, the information is good!

I use the term "Pre-Alpha" as a descriptive term, that encompasses 4-6 models that were make prior to the Alpha Units.

Most people don't know what you are talking about when you give them the older numbers, nor do I honestly know which model I own (yet).

You stated that mine is an MC-1. not to be stupid (but I am truly ignorant as this is a new area to me) how do you know...better yet How would I know??
what are the earmarks?