3/8"

[whepting]

Last year I spent my summer removing my transom from the inside of my 30' 1988 SeaRay Sundancer with twin 350 mercruisers alpha 1 gen 1 out drives. There's a very long story on how I discovered the rot and the very scary events leading up to it. Needless to say I had to pull both engines and out drives; the whole 9 yards, all of which are sitting in my heated garage. During these winter months I took the time to rebuild both out drives and freshen the engines. Just this month I discovered, much to my dismay, that my transom is now 3/8" thicker then original! Not good as the engine mounting holes must mount up with the transom plate holes once re-assembled.
Q: If I move the engines back on the stringers 3/8" that means the drive shaft will be 3/8" shorter in the engine coupling. Will this cause any problems or do I have enough room to "play with" in this regard?

Any insight is welcomed.
Wayne

 

[Bondo]

Re: 3/8"

Last year I spent my summer removing my transom from the inside of my 30' 1988 SeaRay Sundancer with twin 350 mercruisers alpha 1 gen 1 out drives. There's a very long story on how I discovered the rot and the very scary events leading up to it. Needless to say I had to pull both engines and out drives; the whole 9 yards, all of which are sitting in my heated garage. During these winter months I took the time to rebuild both out drives and freshen the engines. Just this month I discovered, much to my dismay, that my transom is now 3/8" thicker then original! Not good as the engine mounting holes must mount up with the transom plate holes once re-assembled.
Q: If I move the engines back on the stringers 3/8" that means the drive shaft will be 3/8" shorter in the engine coupling. Will this cause any problems or do I have enough room to "play with" in this regard?

Any insight is welcomed.
Wayne

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,.... Mercruiser specs the transom thickness to be 2" to 2, 1/4",....
The area on which the transom, 'n plate sit must also be true, level, flat, 'n parallel to each other,...

I build mine to be a dead-on 2",... even built myself a gage to get it Right,...

To answer yer question, Ya, the input shaft will have Less spline engagement,...
Yes, it will cause accelerated coupler spline wear,..

Whether to Fix it now, or run it, is of course, Yer decision,...

 

[gm280]

Re: 3/8"

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,.... Mercruiser specs the transom thickness to be 2" to 2, 1/4",....
The area on which the transom, 'n plate sit must also be true, level, flat, 'n parallel to each other,...

I build mine to be a dead-on 2",... even built myself a gage to get it Right,...

To answer yer question, Ya, the input shaft will have Less spline engagement,...
Yes, it will cause accelerated coupler spline wear,..

Whether to Fix it now, or run it, is of course, Yer decision,...

Just thinking out loud here, is there anyway you could get a hand held router in there and shave off enough to arrive at 2"? A quality solid carbine spiral bottom cutting bit on in a hand held router, you could cut the area down and recover with needed fiberglass and resin to reseal that area. Not know your setup I'm just thinking out loud...

 

[81 Checkmate]

Re: 3/8"

Bondo..Could you posibly have some 3/8" metal spacers milled up and put them in-between the coupler and flywheel to move the coupler 3/8" closer to the transom.

Just thinking and wondering if it's possible.

 

[Bondo]

Re: 3/8"

Bondo..Could you posibly have some 3/8" metal spacers milled up and put them in-between the coupler and flywheel to move the coupler 3/8" closer to the transom.

Just thinking and wondering if it's possible.

Ayuh,... My WAGuess is the coupler would rub on the flywheel cover, 'n you'd be addin' extreme stresses to the 3/8" bolts/ studs holdin' the coupler to the motor,...

Grindin' out the glass, 'n wood is what I'd do,...

 

[81 Checkmate]

Re: 3/8"

Ayuh,... My WAGuess is the coupler would rub on the flywheel cover, 'n you'd be addin' extreme stresses to the 3/8" bolts/ studs holdin' the coupler to the motor,...

Grindin' out the glass, 'n wood is what I'd do,...

Yea alotta stresses on those bolts..... The bad part is he has two transom holes to deal with.. Bummer!

 

[flipbro]

Re: 3/8"

So what is the overall thickness is it 2 and 3/8 or is it 2 and 5/8 NOW? BIG Differance in having to take 1/8 out vrs 3/8. if it was 2and 3/8 i would call it good! DO NOT put spacers behind your hub! mabe you would get away with it on a litte 4 banger but not likly with those V8s lol. just my 2 cents

 

[Fun Times]

Re: 3/8"

You may need the this manual during reinstallation and be sure to read page 10 as well.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...1CI_f4y3jDku_X7KHiSbKaw&bvm=bv.61725948,d.cGU

 

[JASinIL2006]

Re: 3/8"

I can't imagine doing all that work and spending what was probably a tidy sum of money, only to put it back together knowing it was out of spec. As much as it's a drag to go back and cut/grind into new work, I don't see how you can get away from it.

What is your transom thickness?

 

[flipbro]

Re: 3/8"

whepting 8 people took time to answer or ask a question about your problem to try and help or point you in the write derection! A reply would be nice.

 

[Fun Times]

Re: 3/8"

whepting 8 people took time to answer or ask a question about your problem to try and help or point you in the write derection! A reply would be nice.

Hi there flipbro, let's give him a little bit of more time to make it over here as it seems the original thread was moved and may have been lost in cyberspace before he had a chance to come back and find the original thread.

See the link below for details. Thanks
http://forums.iboats.com/mercruiser...outdrives/what-happened-my-thread-639002.html

Edit: just re-noticed you helped him in there yourself.

 

[flipbro]

Re: 3/8"

Fair enough! Sorry gets frustrating at times.

 

[whepting]

Re: 3/8"

Ayuh,.... Welcome Aboard,.... Mercruiser specs the transom thickness to be 2" to 2, 1/4",....
The area on which the transom, 'n plate sit must also be true, level, flat, 'n parallel to each other,...

I build mine to be a dead-on 2",... even built myself a gage to get it Right,...

To answer yer question, Ya, the input shaft will have Less spline engagement,...
Yes, it will cause accelerated coupler spline wear,..

Whether to Fix it now, or run it, is of course, Yer

 

[whepting]

Re: 3/8"

Sorry for the delay.
I decided to make the fiberglass repairs as follows: I used the transom plate as a template marking the area then extending area by 1" all the way around. I then made a transom gage as noted in the manual noted above. I then re-fiberglassed to 1/8" resulting in a final 2 1/8". All is now level, flat and true. Thanks to all for your advise/suggestions. I really enjoy reading the many posts and will be utilizing for other concerns as they might occur.
Thanks to all....

Wayne

 

[JASinIL2006]

Re: 3/8"

Smart move! You won't be sorry...

Hope all goes well from here on out!

 

[whepting]

Re: 3/8"

See reply #14. Thanks again.

Wayne