Problems aligning motor

[nemo2011]

Went to align 4.3 mercruiser alpha 1 and really ran into some snags
We installed motor, torqued rear motor mounts set front down on mounts and fastened in with lag bolts, using the front motor mounts we adjusted so that the alignment tool went in easily, and the spline grease marks were all even on the alignment tool!
When we turned the engine over to 90 deg. the alignment tool would only go in about a1/2" and no more at 180 deg. 270 deg, 360 deg. we could get the spline grease marks to show evenly and the alignment tool would go in and out real easy.
The problems are at 90 deg.
are we being to picky here or what after spending all day doing this and that adjustment we are at a loss why we can not align at 90 deg.
any help here would be much appreciated!

 

[Don S]

Re: Problems aligning motor

The coupler is defective. It happens, even OEM.

 

[nemo2011]

Re: Problems aligning motor

It worked fine before! why all of a sudden is it bad,
How long will it last?

 

[Don S]

Re: Problems aligning motor

Was it stored in the full up position for a long time before you put it down and removed the drive? That could cause it to take a temporary set. Usually it comes out after a bit of running.
Problem is, you now don't know where alignment is.
Put the drive on, run it for an hour under load, pull the drive and redo the alignment.

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: Problems aligning motor

You know it's bad. You know it will fail. Now is the time to replace it.

Do what don says

 

[nemo2011]

Re: Problems aligning motor

Was it stored in the full up position for a long time before you put it down and removed the drive? That could cause it to take a temporary set. Usually it comes out after a bit of running.
Problem is, you now don't know where alignment is.
Put the drive on, run it for an hour under load, pull the drive and redo the alignment.

Always stored with drive in full down position . The only time it is in up is traveling and short intervals, The splines in the coupler are square and not tapered.

 

[nemo2011]

Re: Problems aligning motor

You know it's bad. You know it will fail. Now is the time to replace it.

Do what don says

I know nothing of the sort!!!

 

[nemo2011]

Re: Problems aligning motor

Here is another one. If spline marks are heavy on the SB side or port side which way should front mounts be tweaked?
also sometime heavy spline marks show up on upper right,upper left,lower right,or lower left how does a person handle these?

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: Problems aligning motor

Some times the front lag bolts can pull it a bit to one side if you have a hard time drilling them true. Things in the way or the bit walks a bit. But It sounds like you did it right so your back to what don said about the coupling.

 

[nemo2011]

Re: Problems aligning motor

Might be a dumb question but does the alignment tool have to be whacked up down and sideways after the motor is rotated?

 

[300sflyer]

Re: Problems aligning motor

Might be a dumb question but does the alignment tool have to be whacked up down and sideways after the motor is rotated?

Indeed it does. Have a look here. http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=2971085#post2971085