Need help with b87 57l Alpha Drive

"I was helping my boss with hi

"I was helping my boss with his boat today, just a little bit of history. The boat is a '87 Sea Ray 23' with the Merc 5.7l motor and the Alpha 1 drive. It has mostly been used in fresh water until the past year when he brought it down to florida.

About a month ago when he took it out it ended up "over heating", it hit about 210, he shut if off, let it cool down and has been trying to fix the problem since. So far we've checked the thermostat and risers, both look in good shape and seem to operate well. We decided today to tackle the impeller in the outdrive. We split it apart, replaced the gaskets and associated hardware, but now we can't mate the bottom half back up. We have about a 3/4 inch gap all around. My thinking is the splines aren't lining up but I have no way to test that theory. Does anyone have any suggestions for us?

Thanks for all your help in advance!
-Scott"

"Scott: Did you remove the L/U

"Scott: Did you remove the L/U with the shift lever in forward gear? Make sure the water tube and shift tube are aligned before pushing the L/U upward. Put the prop on w/o the nut and gently move it back and forth a small amount while pushing the LU upwards. You'll know when the shaft seats itself. Make sure the tiny O-ring on the right side of the cavitation plate of the L/U stays in place. Also, before shoving the L/U all the way up, start the two side nuts or they won't fit. The whole assy. should just pop into place if everything is mated correctly.
Guy"

"Thanks for the reply Guy.

"Thanks for the reply Guy.

Yes we put it in forward gear before we took it off. We never took the prop off or that nut, what would that step do for us? If we didn't do that step would that be the reason why it doesn't seem like the shaft isn't going all the way up?"

"Scott: That step is only to

"Scott: That step is only to give you a way to wriggle the shaft when installing it to the upper unit. When I did mine last week, it would not go on all the way. I dropped it down and made sure the water tube and shift tube (small brass tube in the front) are indexed as the drive shaft is being inserted and then wriggled the prop. When raising the L/U into position, guide the tubes and take the assy. up evenly and press it in place. Don't forget the side nuts must be started before the L/U is all the way up.
It takes two people to guide it unless you are half mule since it is heavy.
Guy"

"Thanks again Guy.

So tomor

"Thanks again Guy.

So tomorrow's plan then is to loosen up the prop so we can wiggle around the drive shaft and then try to re-install the L/U. We already found the trick with the tube and the brass shifter "tube", it was just that last inch I kept saying, "If only i could jiggle around that damn shaft.."."

"Make sure the lower half is p

"Make sure the lower half is positioned in forward gear also along with the shifter in the boat. A 9mm socket works great on the small spline lower shift shaft. F gear can be confirmed by putting pressure on the prop shaft counterclockwise.

Brass water tube goes in upper water pocket, the plastic guide stays in the lower. Push the lower up, guide the vert driveshaft and plastic guide into place along with the brass shift tube over the splined shift shaft. Then start the side lock nuts. Once you get a few threads push up on the drive and turn the prop counterclockwise to align the vert driveshaft splines and it should slide right together.

There's no need to take off the prop as you can grab onto it to turn the prop shaft. There's also no jiggling of the shaft as it turns left or right nothing else.
If the prop is off you gotta have a gorilla grip to turn the assembly by hand.

I've done this alot and it just sounds like the splines need lined up. Another possible problem i've seen is that the black plastic end in the top water pump base tube that the brass tube slides into will sometimes catch and won't allow the brass tube to slide in fully."

I have the same problem but ca

I have the same problem but can get to about 3/8"
but when tighting the nuts i find them very tight at this point and am afraid of breaking something.
Should I just keep reefing until it goes into place.
Thx Neil

"one other thing. upper shift

"one other thing. upper shift shaft(still on the boat) could have dropped, and rotated out of position. I always recommend removing the entire drive when doing work on it. then you don't have these problems. and Niel, NOOOOO."

"Thx I won,t force it but what

"Thx I won,t force it but what possibly be holding
it back as I have to assume that since i can start the nuts it must have entered the spline.
The gear sshift at the front I am pretty sure is in the right place as I can still turn this into place by hand.

Thx again"