Re: 4.3 alpha outdrive alignment
There shouldn't be enough drag on the alignment bar when alignned properly to wipe the bluing off. Besides, you want grease on the alignment bar when doing the alignment, dry would make the job even harder. Stick with grease.
The frist thing you have to do when installing a gimbal bearing is to get the center part of the bearing lined up properly. Once you get the bar a litle bit into the coupler, bumping (by hand) the alignment bar, up, down, side, to side will get the gimbal bearing close. Do this several times during the process if you have to aligne the engine too.
Rear mounts die after years, not running hours of the engine. Are you sure all the proper hardware is under the rear mounts? You should try to keep equal pressure on both engine mounts. Just by feel when turning the wrench. should feel about the same.