Engine Alignment

Well for starters you don't want the prop shaft to touch or rub the packing gland when your done. I read .003 difference from side to side, top to bottom of the couplers,,tranny and shaft mating surface when pushed together. The idea is to have a straight line from tranny output all the way to the prop. You probably only need to adjust the up/down/side to side a little to achieve this. Push the couplers together and slip a feeler gauge between them and slide the gauge all the way around 360 degrees and find the tight spot and angle the engine by way of adjusting the engine/tranny mounts to achieve equal or as close as you can coupler mating surface. You may have to use a pry bar or something like that to shift the engine side to side. After, with a wet strut bushing I was able to turn the shaft easily. It's nice knowing that's correct when you finish. I had to do this to twin engines below deck on my 31 foot Trojan, talk about a sore body after that, since then I have installed a Polyflex disk between the couplers that takes up any misalignment and vibration.