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eric lavine 
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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 Topic: Alignment
Posted: March-17-2007 at 8:59am |
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most, know how to align a boat on the site, so this is for the ones that dont really understand alignment
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 8:59am |
If you look very close you can see a slight gap on the right side and this would be your first location to stick the feeler gauge, you can start side to side or up and down, I started side to side and measured .010 at the gap. my up and down was .004 a the top
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 9:03am |
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 9:04am |
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 9:06am |
This is a pinch or clamp tight bolt which controls your side to side engine movement, i loosened both sides and kicked the engine to the left to close my gap on the right, I adjusted until i had .000
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 9:10am |
this mount has the adjustment for up and down, the front and back mounts have this adjustment to adjust accordingly, I had to drop my back adjustments a touch to close the .004 gap at the top, remember i added glass to the top of the stringers raising the engine a touch.
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 9:15am |
This is the finished product, the coupling spins as easy as if it was not connected to the prop shaft, this means you are not creating any loads in the driveline which with mis alignment you create hevy loads and major damage.
One thing to mention is with the bolts out of the 2 couplings and with the gap i had, if you spin the shaft and the gap stays in the same spot then you have mis- alignment, if the gap turns with the shaft, then you have a bent shaft
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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Guests
Guest
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 9:15am |
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very good diagram with pics there eric...i might just check mine one day...maybe!
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 9:21am |
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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boat dr
Grand Poobah
Joined: June-27-2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 4245
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 10:21am |
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Eric, all that boat needs now is a set of polished Hi-Teks to complete the resto.
Good how to on the subject,I know and you know but thanks for sharing your vast knowledge of this critical procedure.
Is that a PCM tranny, and the same as you are building for me?..........boat dr
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M3Fan
Grand Poobah
Joined: October-22-2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3185
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 10:57am |
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Eric, do left-to-right adjustments always involve the rear mounts or when do the front mounts come into play (besides the whole engine being off left or right and the faces not even meeting parallel, obviously). What about up and down adjustments? It seems like you could either lower the front, or raise the rear? How do you make the call?
Edit: the more I think about this, it probably comes down to common sense, but I'm just curious as to your strategy or starting point when it comes to working the 4 mounts when you tackle an alignment issue. This write up is great, by the way.
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 3:27pm |
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9 out of ten times you have to raise the engine because it settles over time, in my case I knew I would be a touch high with the engine because of the glass that i added to the tops of the stringers. It pretty much is common sense, Ive spent entire days trying to get some boats to align and then again Ive spent 30 minutes. most of the time i will mess with the rears to get alignment if i find i cant get it to align then I'll start messing with the fronts. v-drive boats are much more critical on the alignments because of the shorter shafts and you can definitly tell when a v-drive transmission was out of alignment because of the wear to the output coupling, it will try to act like a u-joint and will wear the splines and create all types of problems. on inlines if out of alignment it has a tendency to wear the case because now your putting side load on the planetary and worse case it blows all the gears on the planetary and the list price on a Borg Warner planetary is around $1100.00, better off buying a new transmission, also that excessive load will eat horsepower and will also cause the trans to run hotter than normal.
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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bsucics
Senior Member
Joined: July-18-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 109
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Posted: March-17-2007 at 4:29pm |
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Great post - very helpful for me. Thanks!
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Randy_in_Ohio
Platinum Member
Joined: September-13-2006
Location: N. Canton, OH.
Status: Offline
Points: 1891
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 8:03am |
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Great post Eric.
The pictures show the shaft seal and saftey collar close to the two flanges that bolt together. In mine there is a lot more space between them. I would say I have at least a foot of drive shaft from the flange to the safety collar. Is this right?
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M3Fan
Grand Poobah
Joined: October-22-2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3185
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 8:49am |
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Eric, what's the official torque on the flange bolts? Do you ever use threadlocker on them?
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 9:49am |
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keep the collar an inch or so closer to the seal but not touching, it so if the shaft lets loose you wont jam the prop into the rudder, thats why its always a good idea to check for a nice tight fit at the coupling... make sure it isnt wore out, I'll lock tite them and tighten by hand for the most part, but normally they are torqued to a 7/16 bolt.
For years I had a coast guard inspector looking over me and torqing bolts... Its a feel thing
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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Darrel
Senior Member
Joined: June-16-2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 340
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 1:00pm |
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Thanks Eric, first how-to on alignment in a while. Just brought my boat home and plan on double checking alignment soon. I'm with M3, I will sit there and go over it in my head...if i move the front of the engine to the left it moves the coupling right or i could just move the rear a little bit on the right....then i have another beer and clean the valve covers again.
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quinner
Grand Poobah
Joined: October-12-2005
Location: Unknown
Status: Offline
Points: 5828
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 1:52pm |
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Eric,
Should shaft alignment be done in the water or is it OK to do it on the trailer?
How often should this be checked?
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todicus
Senior Member
Joined: July-10-2006
Location: Napa, Ca
Status: Offline
Points: 493
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 2:03pm |
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Another question......... when checking the alignment, should you remove the bolts to the shaft first? Did you mention a torque setting somewhere ?
I've always wanted to put in a dripless shaft seal, but am too chicken to mess with an alignment issue I might create.
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M3Fan
Grand Poobah
Joined: October-22-2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3185
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 3:30pm |
 todicus wrote:
Another question......... when checking the alignment, should you remove the bolts to the shaft first? |
As I understand it, it should be checked with the bolts out completely, just holding the couplings together with hand pressure.
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LakeHoliday
Groupie
Joined: March-14-2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 50
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 3:37pm |
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Eric,
Page 27 of the Borg Warner Velvet Drive Installation Manual (the Reference section of this site is awesome!) states the Propeller and Output Shaft Alignment should be checked anytime the propeller strikes a heavy object and also after the boat has been lifted by a hoist or moved on a trailer.
Does everyone here check their alignment everytime they trailer their boats somewhere? I'll be bringing home a Mustang hopefully soon (about 300+ miles). Should I check the alignment before putting it on the lake?
Thanks,
Brice
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Hollywood
Moderator Group
Joined: February-04-2004
Location: Twin Lakes, WI
Status: Offline
Points: 13510
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 3:52pm |
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I'm not a gambling man, but I'll say 0% of owners on this site check it ever time the boat gets lifted or trailered.
If you can't even check your own impeller how you gonna check your alignment!!!
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 4:15pm |
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perfect scenario is to check it in the water if you can, these boats are very short and rigid and you can get by on the trailer, its the 25 footers and up that should always be checked in the water, any time you strike an object it is a goood idea to check the alignment, i would add it to the spring list of checking it once a year. boats with rotted stringers should be checked more often if that problem is not fixed. if you do decide to check it in the water at least let it sit overnight or longer to let the boat settle to its natural state.
Alignment is often overlooked and is as important as checking the oil, I dont try to advertise this to much because, well you know...
but alot of transmissions i see are failed due to mis-alignment and it causes hard part damage, vibrations, excess heat and so on
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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Guests
Guest
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 4:41pm |
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never knew that and have never check it..i guess i might give it a shot seeing how for some reason i have some feeler gauges lying around here somewhere..
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todicus
Senior Member
Joined: July-10-2006
Location: Napa, Ca
Status: Offline
Points: 493
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 4:57pm |
Hollywood wrote:
If you can't even check your own impeller how you gonna check your alignment!!! |
I still looking for the magical raw water flushing chemical that will disolve missing impeller blades that are stuck somewhere in my motor. 
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Guests
Guest
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 5:02pm |
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might wanna start disconnecting hoses look up inside..i heard that small pieces will eventually burn up, again i was told this.
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87BFN owner
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-25-2006
Location: Ypsilanti, MI
Status: Offline
Points: 2194
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Posted: March-19-2007 at 5:54pm |
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Eric thanks for the helpful reminders about alignment. The pics were worth a thousand words. Boat looks great also.
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tullfooter
Grand Poobah
Joined: March-02-2007
Location: White Lake, MI
Status: Offline
Points: 2225
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Posted: March-23-2007 at 5:07pm |
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Eric, Those type of pics and instruction are great for us newbie CC owners. I will check my alignment this weekend. When I bought my 85BFN in December, I noticed that the prop/shaft turned harder than I thought it should. It turns consistantly hard all the way around. The previous owner said that he just repacked the shaft. Does that make sense? Is there anything else I should check in regards to the shaft.
Again, thanks for the schooling.
Steve
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Play hard, life's not a trial run.
'85 BFN
'90 BFN
White Lake, Michigan
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eric lavine
Grand Poobah
Joined: August-13-2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 13413
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Posted: March-23-2007 at 7:04pm |
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he may have the packing a touch to tight, but still check the alignment, if its out and then corrected the boat will run much better, people will call me on the phone all the time and i will try explaining and i think i lose some after the first word... pictures tell a thousand stories
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"the things you own will start to own you"
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Gary S
Grand Poobah
Joined: November-30-2006
Location: Illinois
Status: Offline
Points: 14096
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Posted: March-23-2007 at 7:28pm |
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I thought mine ran smoother when I did it,but that might be like taking a sugar pill,it can't hurt.I can't imagine checking it every time it's lifted,my lift uses cables and straps, no bunks.
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