I don’t get shaft alignment part 2

number one rule with alignment, never remove cutalass unless you have too, alot of boat manufacturers laser align the center hole of the cutlass to the center of the stuffing box and then will move the engine to that center.
With alignment there are 3 crucial points, 1- center line of transmission coupling 2- center line of cutlass bearing and 3- centerline of stuffing box hole.
yes, if you pull the shaft away from the trans it will drop and wiggle but were not concerned about this because the weight of the shaft will allow this. were concerned about when the shaft is up on the pilot ring of the coupling and where the gap is which CANNOT be seen or MEASURED by the naked eye, when the CC dealer or MC dealer says the alignment was fine this means they didnt check it except with the naked eye.
The shaft must be centered in the stuffing box area or this to will create loads. You can even put a bolt in one of the holes lightly to hold the couplings together and then start checking your gaps with feeler blades and then move your engine accordingly making sure when complete that the shaft is also centered in the stuffing box area.
30% to 40% of transmission failures are due to mis-alignment and i can always tell the ones which are mis-aligned due to case wear and bearing wear. A transmission will overheat due to excessive output load and run hot breaking down the oil and it will blow oil out the top breather. It will also rob horsepower and the boat will not perform as it should because of the extra load on the shaft and in most cases create vibrations. all in all alignment is probably one of the single most important things on an inboard boat that shuold and must be a part of your yearly maintanance schedule

Eric disregard the post above. I re read and I see what you are saying concerning strut alignment . I have a sterrot slide caliper that will do this easily.I should be able to find a good reference point.