Alignment question with off shore mounts
 

Pulled my motor out in july for a rebuild. Drive came off pretty easily. Fast forward to now. Dropped the motor back in on Sunday. Didnt think to bring my alignment tool. But figured there was no adjustment anyways. Well now i cant het the alignment tool to go in. Hits the splines on the coupler and just stops. Motor mount on front is a solid tube. Rear bolts are in correctly. What gives?

Sounds like you missing some spacers in the rear mounts.

is the coupler to high, low, left or right, there is a fiber washer that go on top of the inner transom plate,

Fiber washers and the funky double lock washer are both in. From what i can tell the tool is hitting the bottom of the coupler. Going to buy a dowell and stick in there to help pinpoint it but i dont have any adjustment.

Hang front of engine from hoist, remove mount bolts, adjust up/down until alignment tool goes in properly, then you found your alignment. If your engine needs to come up a little in the front, you might be able to make a shim for between the block, and mounting pad on the engine plate. Otherwise, you may have to redrill the angle mounts on the stringers .

Does it make sense that id have to make a shim or re drill the holes though? Everythng was fine before. Frustrating to say the least cause i have to wait till a weekend to borrow a buddies forklift and will be gone this weekend so cant do anything till the following weekend.

The motor is currently at TDC so i could drop the dist. In. Would rotating the crankshaft do anything? Im grasping at straws here but i dont understand how anything could have changed

Your installation looks like this ??

Was it properly aligned before ? How are the stringers ?

Yes sir. My son and i had to actually pull the motor back up cause one of fiber washers slipped the first time.

In my infinate wisdom last night i over torqued one of the rear bolts and stripped out the nut which i plan to replace but i dont think that is the issue as it wouldnt align before, during, or after the torqueing. Looks like i can replace the nut without lifting the motor.

If for what ever reason i do have to pull it again im ordering all new hardware even though everything looked fine to me.

Really pissed at myself for not grabbing the tool. I just dont understand how it could be off as there really isnt any adjustment.

If spinning the motor doesnt do anything. Im gonna loosen all the bolts and try to carefully take the weight off with the forklift and see if that does anything i guess

At least i didnt take the plate off the intake yet. FML.

Never checked alignment before since only had the boat a year but the drive came off easily and the coupler looks fine. Everything i have checked looks solid.

Did the gimbal bearing shift? they do have the ability to move a little....try and insert the alignment tool in and see if you can just move the gimbal bearing a tad to get the alignment tool into the splines....it may be that easy hopefully...

You can't get those nuts in or out with the motor in. Hits the bell housing before it comes out

Ayuh,.... When ya pull the motor to replace the stripped nut, check to make sure the rubber rear mounts haven't failed,....

They do, 'n if yer's have, new ones can be pressed in,...

Ok sounds like it needs to come back out. Ill probably just buy new hardware to verify all is good. Gonna give it another look over tonight and see if i missed anything else. Love boating.....hate boats.

What he said .... Although it sounds like the engines coming out anyway, very likely gimble moved as drive came out.

I swear my luck sucks some azz.

Ive been stewing on this all day. Came home and inserted a 1" dowl and could tell the bearing was off slighly. Put the tool in and gave it a smack with my hand and gimbal move slightly. The tool now slides in easier the. It did with my prom date!

That nut though! If all i have to do is lift the engine up and replace the nut and drop back down i guess im still ahead then where i thought i was this morning.


UPDATE! Alignment is perfect now. Nice grease marks all the way around the tool

I decided to back the bolt out and the bolt is stripped, not the nut. Threads came out with the bolt. Jus. T for the hell of it i decided to try to get the nut off. Took all of 30 seconds to slide the nut out of the channel. Plenty of room.

New bolt/nut are ordered. Feel like a dodged a bullet.

great news,,now go play the lottery.

I always wondered WHY they use an aluminum nut. Is it so if the drive locks up the engine can break free. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Alum nut alum inner transom shield. No differential metal to corrode away when salty water splashes on them.