Alignment was easy

[Catdog1]

By aligning the prop shaft with the engine/trans output shaft I have ended vibration that had been bothersome for the last season or so.

It was easy with a couple of socket wrenches and a feeler gauge, plus a hammer & screw driver to separate the flanges, and a mill file to clean-up the flange faces afterwards.

Was "out" by nearly 0.040, which is huge.

Dropped front of motor 2 1/2 turns on the mount jackscrews. Droped rear of motor/trans by 1 1/4 turns. Got better than 0.002. Expected to raise the unit, not lower it. Nevertheless, it worked great on the water yesterday, no more bad vibe. Did it on the trailer. Will double check it on the water next time we go out, had too much else going on when we tried it yesterday.

Next project is to replace the rubber lined cutlass bearing and realign once again. Intend to access it by pulling the prop and the prop strut off.

[DOCDRS]

Thanks for the post.....Have had mine supposedly checked by marina,but think i will
do it myself this spring ven though i'm having no vibration or other problems. Curious as to what yr your boat is? Also how often should the cutlass bearing be replaced?

[Catdog1]

We have a 99 Outback with about 330 hours. This is our sixth season with it.

I've not replaced the cutlass bearing yet, but noticed some movement in the shaft when disconnected from the transmission, so I figured a new one would stiffen it. I don't have an answer for what is typical, but I wish I knew.

[Catdog1]

We have a 99 Outback with about 330 hours. This is our sixth season with it.

I've not replaced the cutlass bearing yet, but noticed some movement in the shaft when disconnected from the transmission, so I figured a new one would stiffen it. I don't have an answer for what is typical, but I wish I knew.

[DOCDRS]

i have a 99 outback ls with the ballast tanks and a tower. Its carburated and i've been thinking of adding a holley throttle body fuel injection to it but it has been hard to get useful info out of these guys. my boat is greatand they all just want me to buy a new one with fuel injection. anyways mine has about 220 hrs on it and onlyhave had to replace the fan belt and blower as they were getting noisy.

[Catdog1]

Yes, wish I had sprung for injection originally, but it was an impulse buy and there wasn't one on the lot!

I replace the fuel filter at least once per season. Several times, this has made a huge difference in preventing stalling. And it seemed to help a bit on hot restarts.

I also always run the highest octane petrol I can find from a modern gas station ( less chance of contamination ).

Not sure I would tackle a conversion, unless I was stripping an identical injected boat and directly replacing parts side-by-side with mine. Carb set-up does not seem that bothersome. Would be very wary that all parts were marine-rated. Not sure how they handle electric fuel pumps in terms of collision cut-off circuits, etc.

Catdog,
When you did your alignment check, did you just hold the flanges together by hand when you checked them with the feeler guage?

did you just hold the flanges together by hand when checking with the feeler guage?

[carsondoc]

Catdog, when you did the alignment, did you just hold the flanges together with your hand when you checked with the feeler guage?

[Catdog1]

Well, sort of.

I completely separated the flanges and cleaned-up the damaged faces due to the screwdriver used to separate them.

Then, I brought them together. There is a self-centering feature on them. I actually pulled the prop shaft hard enough to bump the flanges together.

Then I checked it with the feeler gauge all the way around. Gap was max towards the floor, no gap facing the sky. It looked good right to left.

Then I separated them, rotated the prop shaft 180 degrees, and bumped them / checked them again.

Then checked again and it seemed the same. So, I concluded that the prop shaft flange was square on the shaft.

Then, I commenced to adjusting the motor to remove the gap. In my case, the gap was maximum where it faced the floor, and the flanges were contacting each other facing the sky.

Don't know if this was the best course of action, but I got rid of the vibes.