cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

[seehad79]

I had the stern drive off to replace the gimbal bearing and water pump. I am today i tried to get it back onto the boat and it wont go on all the way. I slide the u joint up in to the housing and make sure the shaft goes into the bearing then try to push it on. the unit gets about an 1- 1/2" away from the face of the housing and then it will not go any further. the 6 bolts are lined up with the holes and there is nothing in the way that i can see. feels like something inside the housing is blocking it. i got in the boat and turned the motor by hand and i could feel pressure on the prop so the splines are at least touching. Has this happened to anyone??? please help, any advice would be appriciated!!!!

 

[Doernuth]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

did you check the allignment? if it is off the shaft will hang on the gimbal bearing.

Also make sure the splines are meshing properly try and rotate the drive as you push in.

 

[Ottacarr]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

Yes, mine when it went back together was a little bit of a pain... wish i cleaned splines a little more i guess. It did wind up going as long as your alignment is good and in forward gear it should go on together!!

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

Replacing the gimbal bearing will require you to check adjust the alignment using the correct alignment bar. There are several posts on here how to do it.

The alignment tools are all over ebay for less than 50.00 or you can have one made if you have access to a lathe.

 

[NHGuy]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

Yup, what he said. You must align the new gimbal bearing so the drive spline can slide into the coupler spline. It can be turned with the correct tool.
Next, the shift must be in forward gear on both the boat and the drive. You can hold the outdrive in forward with a bungee on the prop applying slight reverse pressure. Once you are certain the shift foot has engaged together you can remove the reverse pressure on the prop. Otherwise your drive unit can get out of forward gear and stop the assembly from snugging down. If this happens the shift foot isn't lined up and can't slide together. When in forward the bell housing end and the outdrive end are both facing directly forward and can slide together.
When you are positive everything is lined up it's OK to give it a hard shove to seat the drive onto the bell housing.
But as was said, the gimbal bearing has to be aligned to the coupler with the tool.

 

[clockwatcher]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

Here's the tool new for $35.

http://www.amazon.com/Engine-Alignm...ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1279799697&sr=8-1

 

[hoot]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

after you get the alignment right, it still might not slide in at first. i found that with the floppy u-joints, they drop down and block the outdrive from going in as they hit the housing. hold them straight as long as you can while sliding the drive on. and watch the shift slider as it has to fit into the outdrive housing without twisting. and be sure the water passage o-ring does not fall off the gimbal housing and the gear has to be in forward at the control and the drive housing. you can press on the prop with your foot in the counter clockwise direction. remember to put the seal around the upper housing before sliding it in place (i think i put my seal in the housing first and then slid the drive on). and sometimes you just have to walk away and come back later. i think bondo wrote this once, when you have a boat you cuss like a sailor, when you work on a boat, you cuss like a boat mechanic!!

 

[liquidlew]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

I think you are having the same problem I had recently. If you replaced the gimbal brg, you MUST get an alignment bar and "set", or align the brg before the drive will go all the way in. I read about this here in posts but didn't really understand till it happenend to me, I tried to install my drive without setting the gimbal, got as far as you did and that was it. I had to pull the drive back off and insert the alignment bar into the brg, and then you hit the bar with a rubber mallet, kinda medium hard blow at 12 oclock, then at 3 oclock, then 6, then 9. On my first blow I could tell something moved. Drive then went on almost like butter! Plus you need to check alignment so the alignment bar is a MUST have!

 

[shekinah5678]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

I also had this problem. Aligning the gimbal bearing is crucial! If you still have the old bearing slide it over the drive shaft and over the orings. You will see just how straight it has to be. If it is canted at all in any direction it won't go on. Also found out that you should not put grease on those orings. The heat can cause them swell and make the drive almost impossible to remove. The local marine mechanic suggested just a light coat of oil on them. In the end, after getting the bearing aligned and my many futile efforts, I got the drive on but I still had to give it a little boot with the back of my boot.

 

[seehad79]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

Thanks for all the advice guys. I probably should have added this in the original post but i used a home-made alignment tool with my lathe. I am sure it wasnt to machine specs or anything but i figured it would be good enough ya know. I can shine a light back into the housing and see that the bearing is pretty well centered with the splines behind it at least to the naked eye. I feel like the main problem is the ujoint is slouching in the bellow and preventing the shaft from sliding in completely straight. well, its been a couple of days since i messed with it so i will go try again. not looking foward to it though, its about 105 degrees here now. with i was on the boat instead of working on the boat. Ill post what happens

 

[NHGuy]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

Go for it. You can do it with some effort. Once you have done it the process becomes less troublesome.

 

[seehad79]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

well i got in on after about 3 gallons of sweat. turns out it just needed a little more pursuasion I filled it up with the gear oil, started the motor with the ear plugs just to find out it is making and new noise now. There is a knocking noise that is pretty loud coming from the stern drive. it is loud when the trim is up and almost goes away when it is down. it also gets loud when you turn the wheel from side to side. im pretty sure it is either a bad u-joint or the bearing wasnt aligned perfectly. i checked the u joint when i had it out and it felt just fine to me and before i took the stern drive off it made no noise. i dont see how it could have gone bad. as for the bearing, if it wasnt aligned right, wouldnt it make noise in all positions. seems funny that it is completely silent when the trim is down. is there any ideas? again, thanks for all the repys!

 

[Eric 3.7LX Alpha 1]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

Thanks for all the advice guys. I probably should have added this in the original post but i used a home-made alignment tool with my lathe. I am sure it wasnt to machine specs or anything but i figured it would be good enough ya know.

What do you mean by this statement? The exact specs for making an alignment tool are here in iboats,"Adults Only": miscelaneous Mercruiser Info, for those who have access to a lathe like yourself.

If it wasn't to spec what is the point of going thru all the work of making it? It's not going to work right

 

[seehad79]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

Well I didn't know the specs were posted, I made it to fit the inside of the bearing tightly then I made the long shaft of the tool the diameter of the shaft minus the spline and figured it should work. If I were to buy an alignment tool is there any good way to get the bearing staight without taking itout?

 

[slag]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

I think you are having the same problem I had recently. If you replaced the gimbal brg, you MUST get an alignment bar and "set", or align the brg before the drive will go all the way in. I read about this here in posts but didn't really understand till it happenend to me, I tried to install my drive without setting the gimbal, got as far as you did and that was it. I had to pull the drive back off and insert the alignment bar into the brg, and then you hit the bar with a rubber mallet, kinda medium hard blow at 12 oclock, then at 3 oclock, then 6, then 9. On my first blow I could tell something moved. Drive then went on almost like butter! Plus you need to check alignment so the alignment bar is a MUST have!

I replaced my gimbal bearing a few days ago and didn't have to use an alignment tool. Guess I was lucky, but it took all of about 10 minutes to mate up the outdrive to the transom and bolt everything up.

 

[RichM]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

I replaced my gimbal bearing a few days ago and didn't have to use an alignment tool. Guess I was lucky, but it took all of about 10 minutes to mate up the outdrive to the transom and bolt everything up.

Very lucky! On my last boat I battled it for a long long time before we were able to get it on. In the end, it took two of us to get it on.

 

[stevedar]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

I too am struggling with getting the unit back on the boat. I have an alignment tool and have built a nice homemade stand with wheels. :redface:

Is it worthwhile to make sure the alignment tool is level with the ground before mounting the stern drive? If I do that though I would have to jack the boat trailer up about 2 to 3 inches. Worthwhile? Or is it just as easy to have spline, U-Joints, etc. dip downward to go in at a slight angle?

 

[chaparall villain 2]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

i have always had to reinstall mine at a slight angle and havent had too many problems but again after the alignment tool is used and your sure it will slip all the way into the coupler then make sure the outdrive and shifter are in forward gear with the open part of the horseshoe facing front to rearand once it goes in so far while pushing and moving it around a little if need be turn the prop counterclockwise a little at a time until the splines meet the coupler and it should move in then keeping forward pressure on it raise and lower the whole unit until it goes in far enough to start the nuts and make sure you have the oring in place for the water inlet before tightening it ... good luck

 

[smartwork]

Re: cant get my alpha 1 stern drive back on the boat. Help please!!

Having just reinstalled my out-drive today, here's my take:

1. alignment - in my opinion, no way to eye-ball this. I did buy the tool and even though the tool goes in, there's still a huge difference between that and how freely it's supposed to move in and out which confirms alignment. I don't think it's possible to eyeball this to the precision that is recommended.

2. flopping u-joints - I think mine were what was catching my drive from going on all the way and based on your description of the gap you had when your drive stopped, it sounds like your joints were catching too. Mine was resolved by simply rotating them so that the "U" was horizontal and would more easily slide over any lip under it that it may catch going in.