Rear engine mount too high?

[erikgreen]

So, I spent the whole day with a hoist trying to get my recently built 350 GM block into my 1983 Sea Ray SRV210CC. This is the same engine with pics in the "My Rapido Longblock" thread.

The problem I'm having is that while I have the engine on the boat and attached to the transom plate, even though everything seems to be correctly assembled per the Mercruiser manuals (online) and the Seloc one(paper), the alignment tool goes into the gimble bearing and hits the coupler about a quarter inch too low to enter the spline hole.

So it's not a matter yet of adjusting the forward engine mounts.. the alignment tool doesn't even go in the coupler yet.

Here's what we did:

1) Assembled the engine on the hoist - bell housing, starter.
2) Using bolts, fiber washers, and double wound washers off a pair of new mounting kits we aligned the motor to the transom plate and attached the rear bolts. We used tape to make sure the nuts stayed in place until we got the bolts in. We didn't know the glue the fiber washers down until just a few minutes ago.
3) Attempted to insert the alignment tool.

The bell housing is bolted to the transom plate and is sitting about 1/8" or so above it, on top of the fiber washers.

I do have a new set of rear motor mounts, but we couldn't find a reference on installing them, so we didn't try. The old ones looked okay (but what do we know?) although the port side one was a tiny bit lower than the starboard side.

We're stuck (and I just incurred another day's rental charge on my hoist).


Erik

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Rear engine mount too high?

did you change the adjustment on the front mounts,how did you remove the engine.with the front mounts or undo the top nut? if the rear is installed properly and tightened down it sounds like the front of the engine must go up.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Rear engine mount too high?

We are working on installing the front mounts. This boat was in a car accident (with me) that damaged the stringers the front mounts bolt onto. I had to rebuild the fiberglass in the stringers and remove the snapped off, corroded bolts.

I removed the mounts completely (they were loose anyway) and I've replaced one with a spare from another boat, same model mount. I bolted the mounts to the engine before trying to hoist it into the boat.

I did make sure the new stringer beds are within 1/4" the height of the old ones.

I haven't drilled the mounting holes for the front mounts yet.

However, we did try adjusting the front mounts all the way up, shimming them with 2x4 sections, and lifting the front of the motor with the hoist... none of these seemed to alter the position of the coupler much at all, although they did change the angle somewhat.

The problem is that we're not even hitting the hole in the coupler with the alignment tool.. the gimble bearing "points" at a spot about a quarter inch too low for that to happen.

Erik

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Rear engine mount too high?

have you tried moving the gimbal bearing .if you replaced it ,it may not be square .

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Rear engine mount too high?

I haven't replaced it.

How would I tell if the gimble bearing is too high or low? I checked it and it does rotate smoothly (more or less, it's not silky smooth or anything).

Erik

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Rear engine mount too high?

As reported in another thread, I solved this - I ended up trying to replace the bell housing, didn't help, but then I pushed down on the alignment tool a bit.

The tool rotated the gimble bearing slightly (it was out of place) and now I can align the motor.

Thanks for thinking about my problem though, BT Doc

Erik