Mercruiser Motor Want Align

[reavesga]

Help !!!! What am I doing wrong? I have installed the gimbal and inner transom plate on a Mercruiser MC1 Instaled the motor. Trying to get the engine alignment tool to slide in. It will not go !!! No matter what I do it will not go in. Motor up, down. Even pulled one of the bolts so I could shift the engine side to side. It is almost like the back of the motor is too low and not matter how much tilting I do it is not going to line up. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fraannk]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

You need to post this in the Mercruiser I/O forums.

http://forums.iboats.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21

 

[oops!]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

is the bearing seated?

are the phonelic washers and springs there?......did you crank those bolts down so tight that you are out?

the place on the transom plate where the motor flywheel cover sits.....means that you are close to begin with....your side to side wont change much so pulling the one mount wont do you much good.
it will be your up down that is off......raise or lower your mounts a quarter of a turn and keep on trying.

but ill ask to have this moved to the i/o forum where the mech hang out

 

[North Beach]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

I had a problem with mine ligning up and we figured out that my brother had installed the washers in the wrong place. Took the rear bolts out, put everything in it's proper place and she slid right in.

Also you have to wait until after you get things lined up to bolt down the front mount.

 

[dingdongs]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

pop bearing back out and fit shaft directly into engine coupler.2 questions
1/does it fit in coupler?
2/does it look central in bearing housing?
report back

 

[Alpheus]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

Is your gimbal bearing lined up?

If its pointing in the wrong direction it wont align.

You have to eyeball it until you can just slide the tip of the tool in the coupler and give it a whack up,down,left,right to get it centered...

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

Yup, once you know the rear mounts are correct and you have the front mounts sitting at least on their perch it's time to pivot the gimbal bearing with the alignment tool. Once you have the gimbal bearing aimed at the coupler you'll probably need to adjust the front mounts to get the tool into the coupler fully and smoothly.

 

[reavesga]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

Several folks said I need to tilt the bearing. That seems counter what the book says. Do I just apply a little tweak on it using the alignment tool? I was going to try shimming the back of the engine up and see if that helps. I am getting spline marks on the top and not the bottom of the tool so I am assuming the motor is low with respect to the gimbal. Will post on how things go.

As for posting this forum vs mercruise my bad.

 

[Alpheus]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

Several folks said I need to tilt the bearing. That seems counter what the book says. Do I just apply a little tweak on it using the alignment tool?

What book? Seloc???

Pivot the gimbal and line it up using the tool.

DO NOT shim the back of the motor up. You put it together exactly as the REAL Mercruiser manual shows and thats it. If the rear mounts are sagging they need replaced.

Like I and others have said. Align your gimbal bearing. They are meant to "Gimbal"

Read this. It will help...

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=436175&highlight=proper+alignment

 

[NHGuy]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

OK, now you need to tilt the gimbal bearing down, pull the alignment bar back an inch or two. You are trying to lift up on it enough to feel a slight movement in the gimbal. This will probably take two hands and a solid footing. Start out pulling straight up with moderate to firm pressure. If the gimbal doesn't pivot, pull up with one hand and give the bar a whack with the other hand. If it still sticks you might need to really give it a tug, the only problem with using larger amounts of force is the gimbal can pivot too far, and then you have to go back to get where you want.
Once you have the alignment bar hitting the coupler in it's center you then need to feel the bar and look at grease trails on the bar to tell how it enters the coupler. Your goal is to get the coupler angled so the bar slides all the way in as guided by the gimbal bearing. You need to adjust the engine front mounts to accomplish this. The rear mounts stay as they are.
Good luck, you are almost there.

 

[reavesga]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

I don't understand but it fits.

So I tried raising the engine 3/32 of an inch by inserting a washer under the special split washer to see what happened. Nothing !!! ARG

So I removed all the washers, split and everything. Got to a place where the tool would slide all the way in but with some force.

I re-read the manual (Mercruiser Service Manual, Section 2, Part B) and there on page 2B-2 Figure 4 it shows the double wound washer being cut !!. Reading the text it says to assist with the alignment of some 110 - 140 -150 cut the double wound washer as shown. Basically cut it in half.

I go over to the Seloc manual and it shows a single wound washer not a double. Hmmm.

So I don't want to cut the washers yet, but it turns out I have a washer that is about half the thickness of the double wound washer so in they go.

The rod slides in all the way !!!! A couple of minor adjustments on the front mount and its two fingers in and out....Wow..

So here is the question, I removed all of this equipment from a donor boat that obviously had the double washer installed. Why do I need to apparently cut the washer on this installation? Has anyone had to cut the washer for their installs?

 

[reavesga]

Re: Mercruiser Motor Want Align

Final out come.

Thanks for all the encouragement to keep at it. I put in cut washers today along with the regular fiber washers. Everything torqued down per the book. Alignement tool slides in and out smooth as silk.

Not sure why I needed to switch to the cut washers.