Alpha 1 gen 1 outdrive conversion to alpha 1 gen 2?

[Tommyj98]

I have a century 28 with a mericruser 260 alpha 1 gen 1 out drive, engine is already out due to the guy leaving the plug out and sinking the engine in salt and ruining the whole engine which I'm planning on replacing soon, also has some transom rot im getting ready to take care of. I currently have the gimbal housing and stern drive off the boat and was wondering how easy the conversion to gen 2 would be cause I found a fair priced gen 2 in better condition than my gen 1 is currently, he is selling the gimbal housing, y pipe and stern drive all together for $300 which isn't to bad for a piece of mind and considering the labor wouldnt be anything since I already have it all apart and have to put it back together anyways. (Side note for wanting to replace the stern drive the guy I got it from obviously didn't know anything about boats period or salt water and literally never changed the water pump or did any maintenance to the thing and let it sit in salt the whole life, water tube is completely solid as a rock caked up with salt and for $300 it's worth the piece of mind)

 

[achris]

An Alpha One Gen II will fit straight into the hole for an Alpha One. You might need to just drill the 2 holes at the very top of the cutout, but that's all. As long as your current unit is later than 1982...

$300 for the whole transom assembly and drive sounds too good to be true. Check it out very carefully.

Chris.....

These two...

 

[Scott06]

One other potential thing to work out- the gen 2 has a drive lube reservoir mounted on front of engine, your older engine won't have this or the needed brackets. Likely you could find a used one on eBay and mount on engine or if location if your accessories won't allow simply mount on transom or bulkhead in engine bay. It's nice to have to monitor lube levels

 

[kenny nunez]

I just replaced the gimbal housing on my Donzi and encountered a clearance problem. The power steering on the Alpha 2 lowers the location of the actuator and since my boat had through transom exhaust I had to get the “Y” pipe and route the exhaust back through the drive. If you still have the rear riser manifolds you may have a problem with the “Y” pipe contacting the steering. If you have the center rise manifolds you will have to use the “Y” pipe for the Alpha 2 system.
The benefit for me was I can now hold a conversation @ 30 mph and the boat still goes 70 @ 5000 rpm.

 

[dlogvine]

If you buying another engine, check out the coupler has to be compatible with Alpha One Gen 2 outdrives. Older couplers are different, not triangle type.