gs,
If you are using the correct bolts, they should have a small shoulder that goes into the slightly countersunk hole in the flywheel. That is what aligns the coupler. If you just use a normal "hardware store" bolt, it can move around.

http://www.tickperformance.com/produ...ate-Bolts.html

Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md

also if you look at the motor mounts where they bolt with the lag bolts one of them is slotted,leave the lag bolts a little loose and if the engine is off from one side to the other take the alignment tool and try to move the engine with the tool in the coupler, also helps to leave the rear 2 bolts a little loose..do it this way just to get the alignment tool in all the way..once it slides in easy tighten everything up then recheck it..

The front of the motor needs to come up, not down.

i used the bolts that came with the coupler from cp performance. honestly i dont remember a shoulder being on them but i may not have seen it when i installed them.

after jacking with it some more i have about 240 degrees of crank rotation where the tool goes in all the way and the rest the tool goes about 3/4 in.

i'm thinking that its only got to be off a very tiny amount (maybe a few thousands of a inch) to let that tool slide in that far but not go all the way at that certain crank position so i imagine it will wear that one spot touch then it would slide in nice all around.

yeah, i figured out that also
man i dont know why i was thinking it had to go down, must have had my stupid pills for breakfast yesterday!

after moving my mounts all the way down till they bottomed out and still no luck then i went the other way, thinking properly would have saved me several hours yesterday

gs,
I am absolutely not an expert of ay type as far as installing the outdrive and using the alignment tool ( I have only done it once) but . . . . personally I would not stop until you can get the tool to slide in all the way without a lot of force. You can cause damage to the rear main bearing of the engine if there is misaligment here It may be worth taking it to a marina and having somebody with some experience give it a try and tell you whether it is ok or not. There is also the possibility that the coupler was manufactured wrong, belive me it happens, or the bolts are wrong. Either way you need to fix the problem now, before you start the engine and tear up more stuff

Just my opinion,

Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md

i am late on this one but just ran across it. i like to use a i think 1"? wood dowl to slide into the coupler, this makes it easy to see what way the motor needs to go and once it looks center try the alignment tool and if it goes in you are good. i spent a day trying to do mine, then went and bought the 3 dollar dowl and had it done in a half hour. if you are not doing this process very often i would recomend a dowl over the 100 dollar tool but thats me