Gimbal housing swap issue

[NWVintage]

Long story short, I'm replacing my gimbal housing, gimbal ring and bell housing on my pre-alpha outdrive. I got the three parts as a unit. I took every measurement that I thought would be important before I undertook the project and everything looked and is good except that the little collar on the back of the gimbal housing through which the drive shaft passes is thicker than my other one...? It has the same internal diameter but the walls are about 1/16" thicker for an external diameter that's 1/8" larger than the hole in my transom plate.

Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom regarding what to do with this? Literally everything else matches up and fits. Do I just take the grinder to it? Is there another transom plate out there? I thought that the transom plate was the same for all mercruiser roughly 1976-1982...? I have transom plate 65550.

The SN on the gimbal housing is 5969865 which falls into the SN range for a number of engines 1979-1982 (Including '80-'82 470's). My original is a 1978 470.

I also just went through a bunch of parts schematics and literally every drive setup for which that SN is within the range calls for transom plate 65550. So it should fit. Just doesn't...

 

[Fun Times]

Is there a part number on your old and new inner plate that you can see? Are they a match? The ones online show a part number on the plate such as this one for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxS8BdGDLXA

There are two designs/part numbers, one's for an inline engine and one's for a V8 engine, see item numbers 1,http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show...5&bnbr=10&bdesc=TRANSOM+PLATE+AND+SHIFT+CABLE

Maybe there's a mix up in numbers someplace?

Then there are two designs of item number 14, http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show...60&bdesc=DRIVESHAFT+HOUSING+AND+GEAR+ASSEMBLY

Is there 2 or 3 O-rings on the shaft/s? Is the shaft new at all?

 

[NWVintage]

Is there a part number on your old and new inner plate that you can see? Are they a match? The ones online show a part number on the plate such as this one for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxS8BdGDLXA

There are two designs/part numbers, one's for an inline engine and one's for a V8 engine, see item numbers 1,http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show_...ND+SHIFT+CABLE

Maybe there's a mix up in numbers someplace?

Then there are two designs of item number 14, http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show_...+GEAR+ASSEMBLY

Is there 2 or 3 O-rings on the shaft/s? Is the shaft new at all?

Thanks!!

I looked into all that. Though I missed the different PN's for the different transom plates at first, I did find it later in my search. The strange part is that there's only one PN for the gimbal housing, so I figured that the different transom plates simply had different shift linkage assemblies associated with them. The gimbal housing should be the same across the board (as far as I can find).

I'm reusing the the drive, so the shaft would only be important if there were different gimbal bearings or something that changes the required length of the shaft (there's not that I've found). The only difference seems to be the OD of this stupid neck, even though the two gimbal housings have to be the same part number (there's only one that I can find...).

All of the different part numbers for V8 engines seem to be parts that actually interface with the motor itself.

Anyway, I'm going open up the hole in the transom plate with a grinding wheel on my drill. Wish me luck!

I'll let you know how it turns out...