engine alignment question

[airshot]

Getting ready for the season, about to hang my outdrive and checked alignment first. Needed to make an adjustment and found that rather than just sticking the alignment shaft in, I gave it a quarter turn then pulled it straight out. Found it was much easier to "read" where it was tight and where it needed adjustment. Once I got her real close I then went back to reading the grease marks from the splines, but the quarter turn idea was definetly a bigger help in getting the initial reading.
Don't know if anyone has tried this before or mabey it is a real NO NO to do this way I am not sure. Thought the experts might chime in here as to whether it is a good idea or not. It seemed to work faster for me.

Airshot

 

[84EdH]

Re: engine alignment question

I dont qualify as an expert, but I will tell you what I think about it. When you push the alignment bar in, you create grease marks. when you pull it straight out, you leave those grease marks intact, to interpet for adjustment. With your method, you get grease marks going in, then turn the shaft a quarter turn, then create different grease marks, which would seem to throw off the grease mark interepation.

How have you decided this is a better method? What I found helped me initially was to shine a led flashlight through the gimbal bearing and eye up the coupler alignment. You can see whether your up or down. as I got closer to center by "eyeing" it up, I then relied soley on the grease mark and ease of insertion method.