This is the first boat I have owned with the new dripless stuffing box and have a question as to doing an engine alignment. Because the new box is mostly a piece of flex hose it does nothing to support the prop shaft. As a result when you pull the flages apart the shaft drops and moves about 1/2" down and to the side.With the old stuffing boxes you had an indication of alignment when the flanges were seperated and the shaft and flange should be able to move about the same distance up and down left and right with reference to the tranny flange.If this step was o.k. you went on with pulling the flanges together and using a .003 fealer guage to get the flanges parrallel to each other.Does anyone know what the procedure is with the new stuffing boxes? Also we know that if the flanges are tight on top we would lower the front engine mounts or possibly raise the rear mts. depending on the nuetral position of the prop shaft flange.Mercruiser says to raise or lower the front or rear mounts together as pairs the same amount. Does anyone know what mounts to adjust if the tight spot is between the top and side of the flanges , say at maybe 45 degrees from the top? Would you adjust the mount that is diagonally opposite the tight spot?
