Stern Drive to Alpha One?

[EZDuzIt]

Ahoy all!
I have a 1976 Apollo with a Mercruiser 165 (4.1L inline six). It has the good old gen 1 Mercruiser "Stern Drive" which has served the boat well for 46 years and God knows how many hours. It's beginning to show its age and I'm considering upgrading the outdrive to an Alpha One next spring. Have any of you done this or know of it being done with success and not too many headaches? There's nothing wrong with rebuilding the Stern Drive and just sticking with it but I figured if I'm going to go to the trouble I might as well consider upgrading with the next gen outdrive. Some specific parts for that old stern drive are getting harder to find whereas the Alpha One has parts galore available. Thoughts, experience and opinions appreciated.
~Cheers

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,...... An Alpha 1 drive, should be a bolt on, 'n go swap for yer MC-1 transom assembly,.....

 

[matt167]

Alpha one gen one is pretty much almost identical to the old stern drive

 

[ROY WILLIAMS]

did your MR outdrive is 46 yrs ? in todays world the outdrive is breaking down around 5 yrs ... LOL ....

inspect the old outdrive do the water pump flush out the gear oil...inspect the air pressure ....the time is 7-10psi .. 3 hours pressure is correct PSI..
post you picture ..

 

[Scott06]

It has the good old gen 1 Mercruiser "Stern Drive" which has served the boat well for 46 years

Do you have a MC-1 (with lifting eye on top cap) or gen1 drive now? I assume you meant MC-1, not Alpha Gen 1 which is the same drive the guys are recommending you get to upgrade....

 

[QBhoy]

Suppose the other thing is obviously making sure you get the right ratio for your set up.

 

[EZDuzIt]

Do you have a MC-1 (with lifting eye on top cap) or gen1 drive now? I assume you meant MC-1, not Alpha Gen 1 which is the same drive the guys are recommending you get to upgrade....

MC1