another alignment question

[trumanlake]

We purchased a 93' Wellcraft w/5.7 Mercruiser Alpha 1 Gen II last year. Pulled the drive (no problem at all with removing, slid right out) over the winter to check things over and to replace impeller. Ordered alignment tool, and found the alignment off ever so slightly. Takes a little nudge to get the tool to go all the way in. The grease marks are much deeper on the top than the bottom. Have also checked at 90 deg intervals, no change. Have raised and lowered front mounts, and that has not changed the ease of insertion of the tool. Have mic'd the tool and it is right on the money. Crawled down in the bilge to get an eyeball on the rear mounts, neither are down on the fiber washer. But I did notice that the starboard mount looked different than the port when viewed from the side. Attached drawing simulates what I was seeing. The starboard mount (tang on transom plate and tang on engine bell housing) just wasn't parallel as the port side is. I guess my question would be, if the front mounts are not loaded evenly what kind of problem would you expect to see, and how would you check to see if the engine is being lifted higher on one side and not the other? Puzzled on this one.

 

[Don S]

Re: another alignment question

Try to keep equal pressure on both mounts. If the coupler is hitting harder on the top of the bar, lower the front of the engine.
After moving the motor mounts, with a rubber mallet, Bump the alignment bar up and down and side to side to make sure the gimbal bearing isn't causing your problems.

 

[trumanlake]

Re: another alignment question

Don, equal pressure is what I was wondering about when I looked at the difference in the rear mounts. That maybe somebody before me had tweeked the front mounts and maybe one has the motor higher on one side causing that slight wedge opening on that rear starboard mount. When I tried to align I adjusted both front mounts exactly the same, one flat at a time then climb out bump bar and insert. Dropped front low enough doing that, that it was extremely hard to insert. Raised back up the same way, till arriving at original setting, actually raised slightly higher just for grins then lowered back down. How would a person go about checking the front mounts to make sure they are the same height and not higher on one and not the other. Is there some point of reference that you start from for the front mounts?

 

[trumanlake]

Re: another alignment question

hmmmm. Must be stumped.