Alpha 1 Gen 1 wont drive or reverse CLUNKING NOISE!

[Ahmed.Aldayyeni]

Hello guys im new here and also new to boating. We bought this boat recently. Its a 1987 Ebbtide Catalina 190. It has a mercruiser 5.0 Engine in it with the Alpha 1 Gen 1 outdrive. Our first attempt to get it going failed and it somewhat overheated. We found out the impeller was broke . We replaced that and the complete water pump kit. We ran it at home and it finally pulled the water and returned it back and everything sounded great. We also replaced the Gear oil while we were in there. By the way it was all done by us by reading forums and watching youtube videos. Anyway we put it all back and the next day we took it to the river to check it out. It ran great and the engine sounded smooth and quiet. We were enjoying it and having a great time until all of the sudden it stopped. The temperature started going up slowly and it wouldnt move forward or reverse. We shut it off and we noticed that one of the serpentine belts broke. By the way i just want to point out that when we drove it the propeller was all the way down. It was titled down and we had no idea that we shouldnt have had it down the whole time. Again we’re new to this and i am finding out the hard way. We took it home and replaced both belts because the other one wasnt that good either. Now we run it and it doesnt pull the water at all so we know the impeller isnt spinning at all which is why the temps are getting higher but we still dont have drive or reverse. I can put it in forward and reverse and it will lock the Propeller from going the opposite way which means its engaging properly its just that it wont spin it.The engine sounds great and the belts are spinning fine. But when i put it in gear it either shuts off or it makes a cluncking noise as if a drive is loose or broke. I know ill have to open the outdrive tomorrow and see what messed up but i thought you guys might be able to throw guesses with me and maybe lead me somewhere. Im guessing that i might have broke the drive shaft that goes into the engine. any comment or suggestion will be helpful.
thank you for making such a great forum i’ve read alot of things and i just wanna say ALL OF YOU GUYS ARE JUST AWESOME

 

[Scott Danforth]

start by pulling the whole drive off. and inspect it.

you could have a broken upper gear set

you could have a broken input shaft

you could have a broken u-joint

you may have spun the coupler.

 

[Ahmed.Aldayyeni]

Okay so we took the drive off. The coupler seems bad. I put my hand behind the engine and reached there and i could kind of wiggle the splines part inside the rubber which i know is bad because it shouldnt move at all and it should be one piece. now my question is can we use a car engine hoist and be able to flip the engine backwards? I dont wanna remove it complete i just want to turn it so the coupler faces my way instead of the back of the boat. If its possible, is there a diagram or steps that i have to go through to have it replaced this way. Also what should i change while im in there? I was thinking of changing the engine mounts or i dont know if there is a way to repair them because i think my coupler broke because of misalignment.
thanks again