Just had new transom and stringers put in my boat. I did all the mechanical work and had a shop do the fiberglass work.

everything lined up good before it was taken apart (i did nothing with the gimbal bearing from the time i took it apart to putting it back together...they were replaced last year and have a seasons use on them)

drilled bolt holes for transom assemblies and re-installed and proceeded to put everything back in the bilge around the motors

tonight i went to line my motors back up, started with the starboard and cannot get my tool to go into coupler at all

the fiber and spring washers are both there but it seems like the back of the motor is too low no matter what i do...even if i lower the front much lower than i would be able to with the front motor mounts attached to new stringers

it almost seems like the inner and outer plate of the transom assembly are not in alignment with each other

any help would be greatly appreciated thank you

most likely the gimble bearing got cocked when you pulled the drive off, theres really no way for the transom plate to be off from the assembly, remove the bearing install the alignment tool then press bearing back in with the tool in the coupler

the transom assembly was a little snug going together on the side im having trouble with so im just weary of the plates not being lined up with one another

i will try the gimbal bearing though im not leaning towards it yet just because my alginment there was fine before hand.....but would be good to try before i take it all apart again

+21 maybe..pull the aleighment tool out a bit until its out of the splines of the coupler,now you can move the gimbal bearing arount to eye ball it in line with the splines..

Did you use the merc x dimention tool to drill the holes and cut the transom? did the glass guy add enough wood and fiberglass to the transom so the engine will be high enough to aleigh the coupler properly..dont dril the cut outs for your exhaust just yet,they could be off as well.your transom should be a minimum of 2 1/4'' to 2 1/2'' thick..if any less then your inner plate will be lower then the way the factory set it up.

the inner part of the bearing is designed to swivel. The bushings in the plate can move quite a bit, if the bolts go in you will be able to get it lined up, double check crankshaft centerline also, i had one motor that was trying to sit crooked and was off side to side. good luck!

I did not use the merc x dimension tool to drill the holes...this is the first ive heard of it

The glass guy cut my cut outs i just drilled the holes for mounting...my one plate took some shimmying to get it through but but all the bolts did line up so i am not sure because it took a few tugs to get everything together if it is somehow tweaked a little

I never measured the transom thickness but the glass guy did mention to me thats its critical to be very close to the factory thickness so i can only assume its correct at the moment

factory thickness should be 2 1/4'' if its not then the front mounts wont line up correctly..your guy should have drilled the holes also if he had the fixture..the holes in the fixture are deep so the drill bit goes theough real straight so theirs no binding with the studs..did he drill the tiller arm area also?? that is also part of the fixture so your steering /tiller arm has enough room to clear the upper part of the transom cut out..

http://www.mercstuff.com/transomfixture.htm

I did the area with for the steering arm myself too...glass guy seemed to be in a rush at the end

gonna get some tools and such and try to allign other motor tomorrow and then redo the troublesome transom assembly

thanks a lot for the input i will repost if it solves the problem

thanks for the link mrfixxall too

since my cutouts are already done i found a attachment for my drill that assures perpendicular holes which is a lot cheaper than the merc kit so im going to get that and redrill the mounting holes

To get the spherical part of the gimbal bearing aligned with the coupler do this. Get tool started into splines. Then with a dead blow hammer rap near the end of the tool up/down then left/right. That will line up the gimbal bearing 100% of the time.