merc v-6, i am trying to align the tranny to the coupler on the shaft and i think i might be making it harder on myself than it actually should be. it sounds easy, just make sure there is not a difference of .003" anywhere around the two mating halves but for some reason i am having trouble. so i was going to see if someone might know some tricks or can even give me some steps on how to do it. if there is already a thread for this just let me know.
here is what i was doing just incase it is important. i started off with a small feeler gauge and went all the way around it then slowly moved up in thickness of the feeler gauge, as i did this i realised i might be slowly moving the two halves apart so i put a vise grip to hold the two halves together at 180 apart. Is that bad? i didn't make them real tight, just enough so it couldn't spread as i moved up in feeler gauges. now as i went up in feeler gauges i found a spot that i could only get the feeler gauge into about half way while all the other spots i could get it into all the way. this spot would move as i turned the shaft so i didn't think it had anything to do with the alignment of the engine. in other words if this spot was at 12 o'clock and i turned the shaft 180 the tight spot would then be at 6 o'clock, where as if it had to do with engine alignment the spot would have stayed at 12 o'clock. i thought some dirt or something might have been left there so i filed and sanded the areas but still had the same results.
anyway, thats what i did. How critical is that no more than .003" difference?
here is what i was doing just incase it is important. i started off with a small feeler gauge and went all the way around it then slowly moved up in thickness of the feeler gauge, as i did this i realised i might be slowly moving the two halves apart so i put a vise grip to hold the two halves together at 180 apart. Is that bad? i didn't make them real tight, just enough so it couldn't spread as i moved up in feeler gauges. now as i went up in feeler gauges i found a spot that i could only get the feeler gauge into about half way while all the other spots i could get it into all the way. this spot would move as i turned the shaft so i didn't think it had anything to do with the alignment of the engine. in other words if this spot was at 12 o'clock and i turned the shaft 180 the tight spot would then be at 6 o'clock, where as if it had to do with engine alignment the spot would have stayed at 12 o'clock. i thought some dirt or something might have been left there so i filed and sanded the areas but still had the same results.
anyway, thats what i did. How critical is that no more than .003" difference?
