How's this for ugly?

[harringtondav]

Alpha 2 Coupler yoke from my pal's Rinker. The splines are twisted at the aft edge of the coupler. Bright wear mark - thinking coupler nose contact. Galling wear mark in the location of the gimbal brg shaft seal. Jet black gimbal bearing surface.

Cliff's notes:
2016 Replaced gimbal brg and leaking DS bellows. We dropped the front mount height from mid stud to bottom. No go on the alignment tool, but he wanted to go boating, so we forced the drive home.

2017 Another bad gimbal brg. (anyone surprised?) He had a shop pull the drive, install a new brg and check alignment. Supposedly the tool slid right in. Pal looks at the shaft & notices twisted splines. I take his drive to my place and R&R the shaft. I urge him to buy an new coupler and I'd help replace it. We did. He noticed transom rot at the bottom of the transom plate while installing rear engine mount bolts. By then I knew his alignment was still bad. I don't know what that dealer tech was using for an alignment tool.

2018 early. Out comes his 350 mag again. Off to the glass shop for transom repair. Reinstall the engine, and guess what? Front mount adjusters are back up to mid stud and the alignment tool was happy.

Summary: Many sages on this forum point to transom condition when there's an alignment complaint. I now know why.

But I can't figure how that shaft became twisted.

 

[Bondo]

But I can't figure how that shaft became twisted.

Ayuh,..... Odds are,.....

Yer Bud was out catchin' some air, off big waves, 'n not pullin' back on the throttle, while still in the air,.....

 

[Scott Danforth]

with the Alpha, catching air is a toss-up to twisting the shaft or grenading the gears.

 

[Rick Stephens]

Or hit somethin

 

[achris]

How ugly?

On a scale of 1 to 10, that's an 11.....

 

[harringtondav]

Or hit somethin

Thanks Rick. I'm betting on the air grab. I know his O/D nearly as good as mine. No serious hits evident on the drive or his SS prop. He's been turning his son loose with his Rinker more recently. Dad isn't much for taking to the air. But I remember being 29 yrs. old. Whooooheeee.

 

[Scott Danforth]

How ugly?

On a scale of 1 to 10, that's an 11.....

Scale is all about perspective

Having witness a boat hit a granite outcropping and shear off the bottom of the boat and the lower half of the motor and the aftermath of an MTI hitting a channel marker at 70+ just a few weeks ago....i would rate the twisted shaft a 5....

 

[achris]

Scale is all about perspective

Having witness a boat hit a granite outcropping and shear off the bottom of the boat and the lower half of the motor and the aftermath of an MTI hitting a channel marker at 70+ just a few weeks ago....i would rate the twisted shaft a 5....

True true... And that reminds me of a site I dive (Swirl Reef, Rottnest Island) quite regularly... Bits of aluminium boat scattered around the area. Then you come across a complete V6 Merc outboard, still bolted to a section of transom...

 

[harringtondav]

2017 I was cutting back into the Miss river channel. A deck boat had no intention of giving me my ROW, so I dropped down. Meanwhile I didn't notice the current was carrying me into that big red nun marker. Throttle up, bang, rub rail shrapnel in the **** pit. Not a life threatening encounter. And I learned gel coat repair this past spring.....more self inflicted learning.

 

[Bt Doctur]

A prop shaft though Mines better

 

[QBhoy]

Jeez. Does it have an old school stainless prop hard onto the splines (as in without a modern hub kit) ?

 

[Bt Doctur]

lets just say the "High 5" prop was the size of a large orange after it went over the granite boulders off Staten Island