1986 Alpha One Gen 1 questions

[old_dog]

I am going to be replacing my Stern Drive; I have looked over Adults only, carefully reviewed the manuals, my question is in order to check the engine alignment I was wondering why I could not just use an identical extra drive shaft yoke as the alignment tool? All so I will need to purchase a new Gimble Bearing set and shifter cable and I want the best, I do not want to have to do this again, what is the best product on I Boats or should I use Mecrcrusier original equipment parts only?.Thanks for your help
1986 FourWinns 170 Horizon, Alpha One Generation 1

 

[ziggy]

Re: 1986 Alpha One Gen 1 questions

ya can't use the input shaft to align it because the input shaft is designed to be splined together with the coupler. it fits inside the splines, the splines mate. a alignment bar fits snugly into the inside dia. of the gimble brg. + the inside dia. of the splines at their highest point in the coupler. this way you can line the two up. with the splines mating it's to loose to know if your aligned or not.

i've used a few aftermarket parts and have been dissatisfied with them as they didn't perform w/o modification from square one. the oem parts i've used fit proper w/o modification the first time.

i understand there is a major difference for the shift cable. the oem being as good as ya can get.

my take is i'm just a joe shade tree boat mechanic. i need all the help i can get. and parts that don't work proper don't help me out at all. i have enough obstacle to contend with because i don't know what i'm doing and the grief of mis made parts just slows me down. another thing to consider is that aftermarket parts are copies of the oem. ya gotta wonder if they copied them exactly or used the exact same materials to make them out of that the oem uses and knows how the parts interface together.

 

[Don S]

Re: 1986 Alpha One Gen 1 questions

You can use one to verify the alignment is ok, but it would be almost impossible to align one that needed adjustment. There wouldn't be any way of telling which way to raise or lower the drive because of the splines .

 

[havasuboatman]

Re: 1986 Alpha One Gen 1 questions

Plus, an alignment bar cost's less and is long enough to use without having your hand inside the bellows.

 

[old_dog]

Re: 1986 Alpha One Gen 1 questions

Thanks for all the good advice, and I will go with the OEM parts