Prop key way is sheered

Both of my girls teen years is one of the motivations for the boat. at 10 and 8 their free time is already switching to their social schedule. One motivation for getting a lake house and a boat is so their friends want to come here to hangout. I get to hang with my girls, get to know their friends, know what's going on in all of their lives. I think Its' a pretty good preemptive strike. And when the boys start coming around I can fling them off the tube and skis pretty hard to establish a subtle but clear dominance as well

uh oh, you said the T word.

Adam,
The gel is cosmetic. Just bed the strut in the 4200 and you will be fine.

did H&H confirm it was bent?

Before you go and poop it in place, I would dry fit everything. and by that I mean
bolt up the strut and install shaft, don't have to bolt the flange and align yet but maybe a rough alignment or what i like to call EYE-lignment. with the shaft in its new home and make sure everything will fit right, and you aren't going to find yourself back in the belt adjustment twilight zone.
Look at the hole through the hull (from underneath) and make sure you have clearance all around and if not adjust things accordingly or as some have suggested you may be able to dremel out the small opening in one area if its hitting. I have some nice carbide bits your welcome to use if need be.
But it really shouldn't need that kind of modification, since you are literally starting from scratch. There is some room for adjustment given you keep a few things in mind. As both have stated earlier in the thread. It's good to remember that the hole is the only part that doesn't move and also the centering of the shaft on the hull. good to measure from the chine to the end of shaft.
Just touching on pretty much what everyone has been saying in the thread from the beginning, Probably not a bad idea to read back and make sure you hit on some of the points people have suggested.

8122pbrainard wrote: Hollywood wrote: Pete always says alignment starts at the strut but I say it starts at the log. The log is the one thing that doesn't move. Kevin, It's all in how it's worded. I always say it starts at the strut because it is adjustable and the log isn't I mention starting at the strut since there are many out there that will do an engine alignment to shaft only not realizing their shaft could be out of parallel with the hull. This thread is a good example of the parallelism problem!

problem with parallelism is the initial hole drilled from the factory. If it's off 1/4" at the hole and you center the end of the shaft your running out 1/4" over 4' or so. and where does that get translated to? Probably effects nothing different as far as thrust from the prop goes at such a small amount but at the flange end where is it going to put you between the stringers and alignment of motor. So it all really does kind of depend on the holes positioning and there's a fine line between being exactly parallel and a well-planned cheating of the difference.

You still don't get it!

Install the shaft concentric with the log outlet AND inlet. THEN move the engine to wherever it needs to be.

Adam,
You say you have centered the shaft to the log but even after a couple suggestions of measuring the shaft/strut/log to the chine to check if they are centered and parallel to the hull, I don't see if you have ever taken those measurements.

Well then they screwed up the stringers or the log. The motor doesn't fit in the hull the way it is setup/built evidence being the alternator cut grooves in the frame. This boat only has a few hundred hours on it. The previous owner didn't even have a wrench set and that alternator belt was falling apart/may have been original. That's a factory setup. No way you could center the motor in the cradle and not have the shaft bent against the log.
Do you think they messed up the log? Next season should I pull the log, center the strut and motor and then reinstall the log?
There's something fundamentally wrong when I make the shaft perfectly parallel with the 3D reference of the Log and the alternator is up against the frame. I don't see anyway around that other than one of the following is off, the strut mount location, the log mounting location, the engine cradle location. And this is backed up by the evidence that they had the motor rubbing on the frame to get the couplings parallel.

This must be an Apex? Sure looks like Chevy mount attachment blocks. A Gt40 alt would be way up high.

Post a pic of the front of the engine- maybe we can compare to another SBC boat with the low mount (97+) cradle. Sure seems like that alt is stuffed in there... But the Chevy wasn't a common option at that point and '97 was the first year CC lowered the engine in the hull, so maybe there were some early figment/learning issues at play.

Swap out a perfectly good alternator for sanding a few thousandths of an inch off the cradle?

There is also a large orange warning sticker at the filler saying to not use gas with ethanol. There aren't any other options anymore?

I think they call for the mid grade,I run premium,it's not that much more. Many of us don't have a choice on what we run,there are no non ethanol stations anywhere near here,Usually when you can get recreation fuel it's regular.

DV- Thanks for the web site. I found a place near me I can get clean fuel on it.