1990 mercruiser engine alignment tool

[magicpontoon]

alright here it is fellas. i have a 90 mercruiser alpha one that i just bought. i am currently in the process of changing my bellows and gimble bearing. i do not have an engine alignment tool. is it safe to say that i can just use an old good shaft as an alignment tool?thanks in advance

 

[littlebookworm]

Re: 1990 mercruiser engine alignment tool

Welcome to the forum. Although an "old good shaft" would work, it's a little short to handle. You're much better off picking up an alignment tool so you've got the length of it to use as leverage to align the gimbal bearing itself and to be better able to slide the tool in and out of the bearing. They're not that expensive, especially on eBay. If you were nearby I'd lend you mine. Good luck. Hy

 

[magicpontoon]

Re: 1990 mercruiser engine alignment tool

part ordered thanks for the input

 

[Don S]

Re: 1990 mercruiser engine alignment tool

Just an FYI on the subject when someone does a search and finds this post.

Using an old shaft will work ok to verify the alignment is good, just by the fact that it will go into the splines and pull out easily, but that is the limit of their usefulness. However, they do not work well for trying to align an engine, or adjusting a gimbal bearing after replacement.
Without a handle, you can't use it to adjust the gimbal bearing, nor can you use it to align the engine because you can't hold on to it.
Even if you welded a pipe to it to make a handle, there is so much surface area with the splines that you can't read it like a smooth alignment bar to determine which way to move the engine to align it.