Home made mercruiser alignment tool!

I've compared your drawing to your bar and it clearly shows you machined the wrong end!!;)

Seriously, that looks really good, perhaps you should make some more. If your costs were cheap enough to avoid buying one then selling a few would make it free. Lending it out is OK in your area but I'd like to buy one.
 
You had me panicked then... this one didnt cost me anything but to make more would be difficult.. I did ask a friend who has a engineering shop.. he wanted 50bucks make 1!! I will do some investigating!!
 
I bought one at that sort of price, because I got totally hacked off with the hassles of refitting my outdrive year on year. I even used an input shaft 3 years running to see if things were aligned; it seemed to indicate so. The alignment tools showed something quite different. I actually had to lower the engine quite a lot ( so probably not right since new; I'd have expected the rubber mountings to have compressed with time, lowering the engine rather than the other way around). The adjustment took about 20 minutes. First I had to tackle the corrosion of the threads on the mountings ! Over a day to do that, in the end I removed the whole engine mountings and had to make temporary supports etc !

The threads will never rust again; coated with nickel anti-seize and waterproof grease !

This year, I checked the alignment with the tool again, no adjustment needed, the outdrive went straight back on with no issues ( the leak from raw water pump in another matter !)

The alignment tools are much, much cheaper in the US ( around USD 25 -30 if I remember correctly but the freight charges ( plus of course the import duty/ VAT) inflate that price greatly. Maybe investigating a group buy, reducing the freight per unit may be financially interesting for some forum members( Not for me, as I already have one !)
 
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I need to put my outdrive back in soon and will need an alignment tool.

Is checking alignment really necessary if I have not disturbed the transom plate?

If so, would I be able to borrow it? Trouble is I live in Christchurch!
 
Yes please!

I started by trying to replace the water pump impeller, but noticed that the seal at the top of the drive had gone, so ended up taking the whole drive off and replacing the seal. Whilst the drive was off, I checked the gimbal bearing and that was worn, so replaced that (after much grief getting the old one out.)

Not done this before, so am feeling my way with a bit of trial and error.

Need to install the new UJ bellows before installing the drive.

Any help or advice much appreciated!

Malc
 
malcsmith said:
I need to put my outdrive back in soon and will need an alignment tool.

Is checking alignment really necessary if I have not disturbed the transom plate?
Click to expand...

Yes and no.

No if you've not disturbed it and are happy.

Yes if your following the book. They say you should always make sure it's not moved due to sagging engine mounts. Mind you, that's from the U,S and A where they change everything regular as part of a service including shift cables and bellows. In Blighty it's more common to only fix things once they are broken.;)
 
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