New Engine Alignment? (Yes or No) :)

[John, CD28]

1) The boat is blocked up level according to the 2' level across the beds, and again across the bridge-deck.

2) The aluminum tube is straight as an arrow and light as a feather. With a few wraps of tape near center, it's very snug in the cutless bearing. And, there is just as much tube outside the boat as in, so it's balancing along the cutless, not leaning downward inside the boat. There is no play in the tube.

3) Hung from above, the plumbline is just touching the top center of the tube. The plumbline is 24" long, and the tube is 2" above the template.

4) The plumbline is actually hung from the center of the light bulb that is throwing the shadow below the tube, in fact, the plumbline located the position of the bulb 'till the pointer just touched the tube at its highest point.

Now the question; looking at the shadow of the tube, and the centerline of my motor footprint template, is the motor going to center up on the shaft port & starboard? We're talking port /starboard only here, not up/down.

John Ring
CD28 Tantalus :)

[John, CD28]

Looks like she's off about a sixteenth, not too shabby. I can fine tune from here with feeler gages and a dial indicator.

I really liked having the tube and its long shadow to work with. It really gave a good impression of what's going on and where both front and back of the engine needed to be. Long lines are much much better than a single point at the gearbox output.

EDIT: By measuring the height of the tube over the template at the front mount area, and again over the rear mount area, I was able to determine the front of the motor had to be 1/4" higher at the front mounts than the rear. This was also very helpful.

Best,
John