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Comments
Those are only to be adjusted with outdrive pulled and alignment bar on hand.
You can do way more harm than good attempting that.
if you could imagine, the 'intention' of an alignment is to perfectly align the shafts- input shaft of the outdrive, and crankshaft of the engine- so as they would be precisely straight IF they were ONE shaft instead of two... the 'apex' is the transom/gimbal ring... that is the 'hinge' point, NOT the front mounts... the front mounts are a product of the rear mounts orientation to the outdrive/engine union... if THAT point isn't right, you have to raise or lower the engine with the front mounts to accommodate that lack of perfection... and, if there is a gap there the front of the engine has to be raised... if there is too small a gap, the engine has to be lowered.
if that slug in the picture is a spacer, i'd start by removing it. (after yanking the outdrive off, obviously)... with two people, an alignment (IF that rear mount is 'right') literally takes only a few minutes... if that rear mount isn't right? good luck...
maybe @Alswagg will chime in here... he has likely seen more of these than all of us combined..
the way those two marry, with the engine being below, once the drive is off all you have to do to close that gap (unless that is a slug/spacer) is to tighten it.. if it's just the bushing? it has a cavity to fit in, and tightening the bolts will close it... I wager a decent amount of $$$ the front posts come way down once that gap is removed to achieve proper alignment.
pull drive
visibly look into transom and coupler- get oriented.
realize, as i said prior- your intent is to bridge those two shafts (input shaft of outdrive;crankshaft of engine) as if they're one- not two- shafts...
the rear mounts are mechanical.. there is only ONE right way. make sure it's right.
insert the alignment rod into the transom and press into the coupler if you can.. it should slide easily. if you strike the upper 'pipe' of the coupler, you must RAISE the engine.. if you strike the bottom of the 'pipe', you must LOWER the engine on the front mount posts.
a turn of MILS matters- degrees if you would- "a quarter turn" may be good to get you started, but as you 'dial it in' you're going to be making literal degrees of turns.
when you start to get close, you'll want to slob some grease on the alignment rod, spread evenly around the first six inches or so, and insert it carefully- trying not to touch the gimbal bearing... you'll see the marks of the splines cut into the grease.. if one side is deeper, you adjust until all sides are even (uniform spline marks in the grease)...
when you get it right, the alignment rod slips all the way to the seat of the coupler... you need little grip to do this (but the two finger method is optimistic in my opinion)... you shouldn't have to force it at all.
remember what i said- always adjust 'up' ensuring the engine is seated on those mount posts.
when that alignment rod is 'reading' even, slap a 5/8" socket on your crank and turn the engine 1/4 turn... check and adjust alignment again.. turn another 1/4 turn, do it again... until you've rotated the engine all the way around and didn't encounter any deviation you're not done.
once done- tighten the top nuts down. check once again to ensure that process didn't knock it out.
grease it where it should be greased..... re-install the drive... grease it where it should be greased, and.... you're done.
if you're doing this by yourself, which is the way i prefer to do just about any other job, you're going to need a day or two and gatorade (beer won't keep you hydrated)... if with a competent wrencher (inside, understanding the task and taking instruction well) it literally takes minutes in most cases.
What harm will be done by adjusting the bolts on the mounts without taking it out of the water?
We have a bunch of things to consider here:
1. It is making the noise loudly right now as in, it's pretty F'd up RIGHT NOW.
2. There are two threads left to move it UP. Meaning we KNOW it's wrong in the place it's in and there's only one way to go. 2 Threads basically to me says there are ZERO threads to go in the upwards direction.
3. Youtube video with the same noise saying "It was alignment and it was WAY OUT" - this backs up point #2. It is WAY out in the place it is (UP).
4. The heat shielding is burned, probably front contact with the riser, which has NEVER been the case (I looked back through pictures and videos from last summer) before these guys took the engine out.
5. There are LINES on the mounts that seem to indicate where the bolts have been in the past.
6. If there is no improvement, it will be easy to put it back where it is, will mark the current location with a marker from the top.
So again, not that I am going to make HUGE adjustments...but what would be the harm in turning them one half turn to bring the engine down just slight bit at a time and seeing if the noise gets less or gets worse.
My goal would be to ease the problem NOW as it sits in the water so that it doesn't have to run in its current condition to the closest ramp.
If the 1/2 turn (I assume I'd do both at the same time) does seem to quiet it down, could I not keep doing 1/2 turns to see if it comes back on the other end of the spectrum and put it in the middle or where the lines may be?
The thing that I am wondering the most is, will I possibly CRACK/break something... that will then cost 1000's of dollars to fix just by simply (hardly) moving the motor mount bolts with the engine off and the drive still on? If it was easy to bring it somewhere and get it fixed, I would. However if it can be at least 1/2 way fixed while in the water it will make the task of getting it to the mechanic monumentally easier.
That color difference would qualify as"way out of alignment" as the YouTube guy said his was. The only thing that would go against this is that I hear it would be impossible to get the drive-in if it was this far out.... However I do believe they use the forklift to do it... So what do you think?
It has to come off.. pull the drive.
Not a risk worth taking.
From googling "incorrect i/o alignment forum"
"Found many mounts dropped from torque and vibration (and also not tab locked) which drops one side of the engine."
So... I don't see one side dropped.. wonder if different engines do different things.
2018 Cherokee 39RL Land Yacht (Sorry...)
You have had a rebuilt transom so maybe the bolt holes were re drilled differently?
After i rebuilt the transom and one motor mount on my rinker the adjustment stayed the same but id suspect 9x out of 10 that's not the case.
It does look fishy and id be bothered by it.
i mentioned it before- not all gimbal assemblies are in the precise same spot on transoms.. unless the maker used a stencil, which most do, or a mold, which most do too, those things aren't precisely the same... it's akin to pick up trucks coming off the assembly line- look at the gap between the bed and cab on brand new trucks sitting side by side at the dealer, duplicate in every way except that gap.. it may be 1/8th more closed on one side than the other, or, a lot more than that.. it has to do with where the frame was tapped for the bushing, which isn't a precision (close, but not true precision) operation.. same with torsion bars- one may be set ever so slightly higher or lower... and it's the same with transom gimbal assemblies. an 1/8th inch matters. some boats eat bearings, some don't... some are easy to align, some are a PITA..
exercise: locate your placement of gimbal bearing in relation to the side of your boat- mark it.. use that as the 'pivot' point... now hold a broomstick or dowel to that mark parallel to the hull and where the mark meets the middle of the stick/dowel, and attempt to align it to the input shaft of the drive... take note of the angle- that is the angle your alignment should follow (roughly)... you will see the incline from the drive to the engine, but it shouldn't be a substantial incline... likely less than 15*... if you were to measure the distance from the gimbal to the front mount, you'll have a general idea how high those mounts should be.. .precise? NO... but.. ballpark.
i'd wager a bushel that those guys simply didn't do a good alignment.. plain and simple.. and, it's not like it can be argued because the nuts on the mount were resting so high... if they DID try to align it, there is something wrong about the rear mounts which i brought up prior- there is NO alignment or adjustment in the rear mount... it is either 'right' or it 'isn't right'- there isn't an in-between. i still hold that rear mount suspect- i'm not there and can't see it, but it appears to me there is too much gap between the engine (couper/flywheel cover) tabs and the transom assembly's tabs... and that gap? accounts for the 'high rise' of those front mounts.