Flex plate removal 76 silverton vdrives

"Starting to slide engine towa

"Starting to slide engine towards rear of boat, have a A frame on wheels. Question, can I leave the inspection plate bolted on? If not it is going to be a pain to get to. Also the shims that the engine brakets sit on look crappy should I replace with stainless steel plates? but also worried about aligning engine which I know nothing about"

"After engine seperation from

"After engine seperation from xmission, the bellhousing comes off. For the bellhousing removal, the starter and lower inspection plate get removed. You might be able to remove all the flexplate bolts with the housing on, but its not possible to remove the flexplate with the bellhousing bolted up to the block. I suppose you have the option of not reinstalling the plate. Just don't let your cat down there with the engine running!"

replacing those shims is a goo

replacing those shims is a good idea but then you will have to align the the engine and if your mounts are old or original then they have to be replaced because they are probably frozen. and from my past experience they don't make the same size shaft on the mounts to slide into the engine mount plate and you will have to drill the hole out to one inch which is a whole lot of fun. i hope any of this will not be the case but just warning you from my pain in the butt experience

"Robert,

I wwent thru this

"Robert,

I wwent thru this same issue about 8 weeks ago. Pulled the engine and V-drive as a single unit. It was much simpler than trying to get to those 7/16 bolts that keep the flywheel sandwiched between the bell housing and the cover. Trying to get to the damper bolts thru the timing hole is a pain as well and the entire job took about 25 minutes to do were it not for removing the freakin engine. Dave was right on target when he mentioned this to me at that time.

I had one hell of a debate deciding whether or not the swap materials for the motor mount shims. AND, after MUCH discussion, I went with new plywood. Heck, the old stuff lasted for 28 years.

Engine alignment is not technically challenging but is a MOTHER if you have v-drives. If you imagine a clock face, you will need to have the mating surfaces within.003 at the 12,3,6 and 9 o'clock positions. To do this you will need to adjust the mounts up or down with a open end wrench and then slide the engine left or right by loosening the bolts on the motor mounts. Additionally, the boat should not really be on dry land as the hull takes a different shape when blocked. From POOR alignment when we had gotten this boat, the shaft log was nearly worn thru from the shaft spinning against the edge. Additional wear on cutlass bearing and other vibrations are likely with poor alignment

I did replace an angle iron mount on one corner of my stringer. Years of corrosion had reduced its' dimension by half."

"The alignment will be mandato

"The alignment will be mandatory once the engine is bolted back on the bed. As Al noted, doing it while floating is key. The owners manual gives a reasonable description of what needs to be done. One of the key steps is to get the shaft located in the center of the log and then align the engine to that reference point.

Again, as noted, it is not a tough task but can be very time consuming. To minimize the pain, make sure all the mounts are in good shape BEFORE you put it back together. New mounts are not cheap but are money well spent if the old ones are worn or corroded to where they won't 'adjust'."