I'll be sure to notify Heidi that you are looking for another project.

She knows, she knows, oh boy does she know..

What drive shower do you recommend.

I'm running a Simrek drive shower. I'm not sure about other brands. The Simrek is designed for the stock Alpha, so I had to make a spacer and get a longer bolt to mount it. I've watched it from behind while waterskiing and it works great. You can see it in this pic...

Simrek- here too, but they offer a kit to lower the shower. It requires you to shorten the tubes and install new pickups in place of the ones you cut off, 5 min. job. It puts the top of the shower closer to the top of the drive. Plum Crazy give them a call you can get rid of the long bolt and spacer

Hey Charlie,
Good to see you yesterday. I haven't seen one these drives in years, but it certainly looks exactly like the 2nd version (two hole/above the nose cone/ModVP legal) CLE that came standard on the 2.4 litre HP Mercs that we used to run. I think the internal upgrades that the guys are recommending are all good ideas in the higher torque/heavier boat I/O applications.
If the vertical shafts are NLA, it should be easy to cut down and respline a Mercury outboard drive shaft. We did it all the time when converting 20" mid section motors to 15" and 12" short shafts.
Congrats again on the Pachanga, but I think you're going to have get a new screen name, because you don't "need ride" anymore ............
Regards,
Steve

You can always learn something on this forum!

Hey Plum Crazy, Did your SS196 come with a V-8 in factory trim? I'm curious because I have an '87 SS174 I bought last summer to turn into a boarding/tubing boat for my kids. It's rough but it was cheap. The floor and hull seem to be excellent, but otherwise it's killed. I was considering taking the dead V-6 out and dropping a basically stock 350 4-bolt truck motor in it with a mild marine cam and thru-hull exhaust. I've already got manifolds, etc for the SBC, and the starter, alt., and that jazz from the V-6 should be a straight bolt-on with the right brackets from what I'm told. The seats are trashed so moving the back seat up about 5" to clear the new motor isn't a big deal. I guess my real questions are: a) is the swap as straightforward as it would appear on the surface, and b) is my transom likely to be extra-low riding with the increased weight? I think moving the back seat up some will help offset the rearward weight of the V-8, but only slightly. If you or anybody else out there has any input or experience with this one, I'd be grateful to hear from you. TIA!

Yes, my boat came with a 350. Sorry, I'm no expert on engine swaps and don't have any advice for you. Good luck!

I have and SS on my 18 donzi, I am 99% sure that the upper is different. It has no cavatation plate........
The lower is a 2nd genration CLE case, but does have a few different parts. Namely the vertial shaft, and **** linkage.

RT