Engine out...realignment questions
 

My 2001 Mercruiser 5.7L 2bbl is out for a once over on some new parts, starter, alternator, flywheel, coupler and water pump. I put the shifter in forward before removing the motor.
I havent moved anything / have not rotated anything so can I just slip the motor back into place? or do I have to remove the Alpha & buy an alignment tool?
I intentionally didnt move anything in hopes of just slipping the motor back in place.....but I see online alot of people saying the alpha has to come off and alignment done no matter what...
I dont have the alignment tool and hope I dont have to spend money on one...and dont really want to remove MORE parts lol

How did you get the motor out with the drive still installed, w/o lifting the front of the motor up to clear the motor mounts?

You really should remove the drive, reinstall the motor, have alignment checked, reinstall drive. In that order

I just unbolted the rear bell housing bolts, removed the bolts from the stringer mounts in front, BARELY took weight off front and wiggled / rocked motor by hand and with a couple tuggs ....it just slipped out nice and easy.

i left the mounts attached to motor but removed stringer bolts... this allowed the motor to slide forward along the stringers.

Yeah what he said!

I would pull the drive off and put the engine in place. Rent or borrow the alignment tool to position the engine then install the drive. Worst case go on ebay and buy the tool, it's much cheaper in the long run than a blown coupler or a few U joints...

Why are you replacing the coupler? Are the splines worn?

I am the new owner of a 2001 Baja Hammer.....well owned for a yr now. It appears the previous owner didnt wash the motor / bilge out as often as he should have (possibly ran motor with salt water in bilge getting thrown up on flywheel)....as a result, the salt water had gotten the best of the coupler and flywheel / ring gear.
It all started with the starter unable to engage ring gear teeth as they had been salt damaged....after pulling motor I found the coupler badly rusted. Coupler splines look perfect, it was the triangle mounting flang that was extremely rusted.

Just seems that if the motor internals were not moved ie. crank not turned, the drive was locked into place before removing the motor and nothing else was changed other than new flywheel and coupler (coupler splines looked perfect on old unit) then how would anything change? The motor slid forward like butter when i removed it.
This is all new territory for me...so forgive me if I seem ignorant to the reason why i would need to remove drive lol:party-smiley-004:

you will need to get an alignment tool,when you left the mounts on the engine,you lost alignment.

Turning the motor over or not has nothing to do alignment. (for most part if coupler is true) The motor mount lag bolts you removed went thru slotted mounts. Will you be able to reinstall in reverse order and try to reposition the mounts in exact same location and be fine? Possibly since you won't be changing the motor front height, and side to side positioning will be very limited. But it may have been off before the removal?? however if spline weren't worn, sharp pointed tips, sounds like it was good. The cost of the tool isn't bad. A member here, whoya, sells them on ebay at a really good price, but you gotta know how to use and read the grease markings. You spent the money on a new flywheel, couple, and starter, and the time to remove the motor, the tool will make sure you have it all back together correctly. If anything, have the motor installed and run it down to the marina with the drive off and have a mechanic do a quick check.
Also, by removing the drive, you will be able to grease the ujoints and inspect the bearing, which can't be done with drive installed. You stated salt water on flywheel and coupler, rust. Did the bearing get wet too?

Were the 2 large upper nuts on the motor mount studs tight against the mount themselves, or was there a gap between the mount and top nuts?

You'll need to make sure the fiber washers and springs don't fall off if you slide the motor back, in reverse from the removal procedure if you choose not to pull the drive. Usually never an issue when the motor is lowered on top of them and aren't fighting the input shaft. Make sure once you start the input shaft into the coupler, you keep the motor at same level as when slide forward with mounts sliding on stringers to keep from cracking the gimble housing. But in all honesty, you are only 5-10 min away from having the drive off and making the engine install go a lot easier, and ability for a more indept looky see at bellows, u-joint and bearing.

Pull the drive and check the alignment. Sometimes a local boat dealer will loan you one with a deposit if you buy the oil from them or you can buy one cheap on-line. You need to do this and it's no big deal.

Well Im going to see if i can locate a tool locally in the Tampa Bay area...plan on putting the motor back in on Wed / Thurs of this week. Trying to get her all buttoned up for the up coming holiday weekend and I have just a couple available days to do it all.
Ill also do a search on "reading" the grease pattern on the alignment tool. Guess I need to find the gaskets for the Alpha drive to. I'll check with local repair shops to see about renting one..

Anyone know the Alpha Drive torque specs...would hate to over tighten the drive and cause damage to gelcoat / fiberglass. Aso after replacing outdirve gaskets, is it suggested to use any type of silicone sealant around the out edge of the drive / flat mounting surface / between drive and fiberglass?

Trim rams and 6 nuts and the drive will slide off. Not the transom assy. No need to buy seals or worry about torque specs. Slide drive back on pins, disconnect shift cable, and pull drive off. One man Job and no fluid will not leak out.

Oh ok! gotcha....I found a local shop that rents the tool for $20.00....Would just buy one online but I need it for tomorrow and or Thursday. What kind of grease is suggested for the coupler / drive? What else should I lubercate while its all apart and what kind of grease is recommended?
I appriciate all the advice guys... I come from the outboard scene & the inboard is new to me.
I will tackle all the little grimlins that raise their ugly heads with the help of guys like you giving solid advice...this is how we all learn! Thanks again!

Gimble bearing/ u-joint grease and also coupler grease. Buy from marina. Alphas require a gasket set. Pick that up too. It's cheap. Ask marina how to use the tool. It's easy but hard to understand if never done it before. I'd also recommend a manual.

It's real easy to do. Mainly you want the tool to slide in and out easily. I use a real sticky blue wheel bearing grease on the splines.

And remember the gimbal bearing ROTATES. That kicked my azz the first time I did a boat until I had my "oh duh" moment. LOL

Yep! It also pivots. :)

Same thing happened to a buddy and myself when replacing the transom assembly in his boat. Never could get that aligned. Pulled motor twice, removed and reinstalled transom assembly. By accident, a little anger fit happened and the alignment tool got smacked real hard sideways, only to realize, that damn thing pivots too!

Now I is smarter. :lolhit:

exactly,,,,,more often then not ......the shaft pivots the gimbal bearing while you are removing the drive unless you have a drive stand or forklift and slide it straight back

JLB
Alot of good tips already posted here from these guys.
I just sent you a email with all the tips/instructions I send out with my Alignment tools.

Thanks for to instructions! Im tackling it on Monday....this will help out alot!
Once again I appriciate all the help :drink:

Ok this alignment thing turned into a nightmare! :greenchainsaw:
I rented the tool....pulled the drive (simple & thanks guys for the advice), put motor in boat & attempted to use alignment tool...for...6 FREAKING HOURS! I tried to get it to slide in but could never get it! well guess what....they rented an OMC tool to me!!!!!!!:argue: I made a tool to measure the bearing race, the coupler spline etc and found it was way different than the OMC alignment tool! GRRRRRRRR!!!!!
I took it back and after a few choice words, got the right tool.
This time when i slid the tool in and made motor adjustments, the drive splines wouldnt line up. I got in boat and attempted to turn motor over by hand to align the splines....guess what?.....I couldnt turn the motor over....not even with a 3 ft leverage bar on balancer!!!! Could the motor be froze up!!??? how could it? it turned over when I pulled the motor and was replacing parts....made no sense to me! WELL GUESS WHAT? the new coupler came with new bolts...wel lthe new bolts when used with the new lock washers, caused the bolt heads to embed themselves into the aluminum flywheel bell housing cover!!!! I had to pull the motor AGAIN and replace the bolts with new bolts.
Now i get the motor back in....do another re alignment....got it as close as I could get it (tool pulled out with three fingers and just very little effort) and throw drive back on.....tow it home from friends home and start the re assembly of all the additional parts....& yup you guessed it...GUESS WHAT??!!!!! the shifter wont pull out of forward gear....pull the drive off and after some tinkering, find that if i turned the prop while drive was off just before putting it back on, it would cause the shift fork not to line up....fix that and BINGOOOOOOOOOOO back in business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A one day job took me 3 1/2 days, a lot of foul mouth comments, bruises, cuts, anger management classes and a wife that wasnt to happy with me LOL....but I managed and now its back to the water to enjoy the Florida sunshine, family & boat drinks :drink:

Glad you got it fixed. Learning is often painful. But next time it will go that much smoother.

Amost forgot to mention this one....when I disassembled the motor accessories, the bot sat for a week or so and the power steering fluid reservoir tipped over and fluid poured out....Well dumb me & buddy took the newly assembled boat to the water at 1am in morning....right after finishing the boat. We put in at a local river that dumps into the bay...we start it up, check for leakes and push off....well because I forgot about the power steering fluid...we ended up with no steering!!!! and floating down stream! boat would only do circles....I tried to slowly force the steering and POP! I messed up the steering helm unit....it has about 2 inches of play / no steering at a certain point....
I found about 4 ounces of steering fluid in boat and was enough to get us to the dock...ran to the 24hr store and got some...added it and off we went again lol...boat ran perfect! but steering has that slack....if you turn it left or right, past that point, it steers fine...only when you hit that one point does it have slack / feels like it free moves that 2 inches worth...so thats my new repair lol

Thanks Dave M! that is soooo true...Im actually "kinda" glad ...now.... that I ran into those problems, as wierd as that sounds...I learned so much! and I feel so much more comfortable with my boat and its setup now.