alignment blues

[Kevin]

Started to pick up vibration on the port motor. Also the dripless started slinging water around. The angle of the tube is slightly more than it should be. I watched the shaft and tranny thru the cockpit access and there was a visible wobble in the tranny as the rpm's went up, and then it smooths out.

Tried to do an alignment and what a pain. I have 1" stainless spacers between the output shaft and the coupler. Unless there is a trick that I do not know of, it is a nightmare. Two areas to measure gaps which constantly change with every adjustment in the mounts. Of course, after messing with it all day and having the cockpit deck out of the way and all the engine covers off, the rain comes to finish me off. If you ever think about getting spacers to remedy shaft replacement, don't. Buy longer shafts.

I would love to pay to have this job done, problem is, there is nobody to pay that I know of. Open for suggestions at this point.

[randall]

try it on v drives sometime.........my only thought till the pros chime in is you shouldn't have to do both sides of the spacer..just the tranny side...or get the spacer right to one side and not change it.....if you're not frustrated enough remember the shaft has to go correctly through the cutless bearing...i gave up after 10 hours and my friend the marine tranny mechanic did it in 45 minutes......

[JP Dalik]

When they did the initial out of the water alignment on ours they built spacers so the shaft would be completely centered in the shaft log (or tube if that's what you got). Then the shaft was brought as close to the coupler as possible. and the engine aligned to it. With dripless packing you may be able to center the shaft in the hole or at least support it. You don't want to align the engine and shaft with the shaft sitting on the fiberglass tube or shaft log.
If you have a spacer I would guess its for wheel clearance off the strut. Is there enough space between the wheel and strut to remove the spacer and then slide the shaft to the coupler. Once you have the alignment done and the engine mounts tightened up push the shaft back and re install the spacer. A few more steps but maybe easier in the end.

[Carl]

I had a sailboat guy try the same fix, had me make up a 1-5/8 spacer to save him from buying a new shaft. For an extra 40 bucks I asked him if he wanted me to tap the spacer so he could mount the spacer to the tranny flange and he could align the engine, No way too expensive he ranted. Well he spent all summer screwing around trying to get the alignment right, asked everbody in the marina for help. Then he finally broke down and paid me the 40 bucks, he mounted the spacer to the tranny coupling then aligned as normal.

Really funny thing... it was a 3/4" diameter shaft 17" long. The spacer and the fix came to about the same cost of a new shaft. Never mind all the time he spent, to top it off the guy is a doctor and could have paid for the hole thing with a 15 minute office visit.

So anyway tap the spacer with an eight hole pattern and pickup an extra set of coupling hardware. Bolt spacer to tranny coupling, use secound set of holes to mount shaft coupling to spacer and align as usual.

[Kevin]

I was doing the tranny side and thought I was making progress, but shifting the mounts casued spacer to move slightly. My angle is slightly high. Dive under boat all the time to check cutless you can see a slight angle exageration. Shaft did not touch tube anywhere despite extra angle in tube. the bellows in the dripless was slightly tweeked but the first 50 hours of operation was smooth as silk. Then one day the vibration was there. Maybe I just need to take a break and approach it later. Days are longer and it is still cool enough to work in the sun down here. I could go glass some 100$ bills into the cabin to take my mind off the shaft issue.

[Bruce]

Kevin,
Drop the props if there is less than 1" between the strut and prop, remove spacers and put coupling to coupling to align.
When done put the spacers and props back on.

Becareful trying to align to packing tube. If the strut has tweeked at all, you'll drive yourself nuts cause the shaft will no longer be centered in the tube.
In fact 60% of the boats I see, the shafts are offset from the center of the tube.

If you house, feed and water me or at least give me a get out of jail free card, I might be persuaded to make another Keys trip before May to help out if your interested.

Without the wife this time.

[Kevin]

If time had allowed I would have done it another way....deadlines, too late now.
I think I have enough space between props and strut to slide shaft forward. May just have to loosen set screws on stainless/drippless collar so boat does not sink since bellows will not be compressed while slid in forward poition. I will try that in the A.M.

Was going to test drive my first attemt but found another problem. Not pumping raw water. Pulled hose off seacock and found parts of my impeller. that was the motor that had an aftermarket impeller from day one. When it was on the show room floor someone needed impeller, took it and did not replace it. When we installed motors we just scratched our heads as to why a brand new motor would not pump raw water!

Bruce your offer is greatly appreciated. Sid stayed here a few weeks ago but he was pretty busy and the weather was terrible. There is always an open room here at the new house. Boat is across the street.

[Doug Crowther]

Kevin
Its no big deal to loosten the set screws on the stainless disk and slide it down. I have to re-tighten those screws a couple of times a year. It can be fun without someone to help you compress the boot while you tighten the alllen screws. Hope your alignement goes well- I will be doing the same thing next month when the boat goes back in.