Alignment adjustment, witness marks

[evantful]

Howdy, replaced a Gimbal Bearing (Volvo OEM Part) for a TSK-B/DPS-B Transom/outdrive.
Went to check the alignment with my alignment bar, bar inserted somewhat stiffly but all the way, gave the bar some love taps with a rubber mallet all the way around the handle end to center the gimbal bearing.

Getting heavy witness marks on the bottom, noticeably less so on the top. Turned engine over, no different, still heavy on the bottom. Side to side looks good.

Now my question: With heavy marks on the bottom of the bar, do I adjust the front engine mount nuts upward or downward?

 

[BRICH1260]

The front of the engine needs to come up a bit.

 

[evantful]

Thanks, thats what I recalled. It's odd, I have raised the front evenly, 5 full turns of the nuts, and it continues to show heavy witness marks on the bottom. Starting to run out of thread

It is not a stringer or engine mount block issue, boat was surveyed in the spring, and my own review shows them to be in good condition (2009 Monterey 260 Cruiser). Doubt it's the rear mounts sagging, would expect heavy top witness marks in that case

 

[Scott06]

Thanks, thats what I recalled. It's odd, I have raised the front evenly, 5 full turns of the nuts, and it continues to show heavy witness marks on the bottom. Starting to run out of thread

It is not a stringer or engine mount block issue, boat was surveyed in the spring, and my own review shows them to be in good condition (2009 Monterey 260 Cruiser). Doubt it's the rear mounts sagging, would expect heavy top witness marks in that case

I’m pretty it’s It’s inverse it witness marks are heavy on bottom then lower the front …as you’ve seen raising isn’t helping go back to where you started and maybe half a turn lower and then check alignment

 

[cyclops222]

With the bar squeezed so tightly now. You now know which direction to move the engine to easily slide out the bar.

 

[evantful]

With the bar squeezed so tightly now. You now know which direction to move the engine to easily slide out the bar.

Well thats what odd, I can install it and remove the bar with two fingers.

I’m pretty it’s It’s inverse it witness marks are heavy on bottom then lower the front …as you’ve seen raising isn’t helping go back to where you started and maybe half a turn lower and then check alignment

That's how I thought about it too, pressure on the bottom, lower to reduce pressure. But most references I see, say it's lift front of engine.
Given I'm near the end of usable threads, I'm going to reset and lower and see what happens

 

[kenny nunez]

If you have a small bottle jack or an overhead hoist loosen the mounts and either under the harmonic balancer with the jack or with the hoist raise and lower the front of the engine. This makes getting alignment easy and fast.
Then set the mounts, quite often the stringers are never the same height and the adjustment settings will be different on both sides. So do not try to have them look exactly the same thread stud wise.