Today in boat repair: got the drive shaft aligned and bolted to the transmission. Installed and adjusted the shifter linkage.
Something that really helped speed up the alignment was measuring the height of each of the old motor mounts prior to removing them. Measuring the fronts was especially important, since the rears could be adjusted and the gauges checked without having to crawl around so much.
I tested the transmission/shifter linkage using the compression release: shifted to forward, turned the motor over by hand and the gear engaged/shaft turned. Shifted to reverse, same thing (only, opposite direction). Shifted to neutral, turned the motor over, the output shaft doesn't spin. Woo woo, I might have done this all correctly.
I was a bit nervous because these transmissions are weird. If you turn the shifter lever on the transmission 'all the way' into forward or reverse, then try to turn the transmission input shaft, the transmission will totally seize up. Like you can't even shift it back to neutral. I guess you're only supposed to move the shift lever ~10-15 degrees, instead of the full ~40 degrees that the lever will turn. The shifter in the cockpit is designed to only pull the lever ~15 degrees.
I still have to repack the stuffing box and connect the fuel cutoff, but those are easy peasy jobs.
I might actually take the boat out for a sail in ~2 or 3 weeks. I guess I need to actually pay for the registration this year, after all...
Best parts of today: 1) remembering to wear nitrile gloves, so my hands are okay and 2) doing all of the work from the port side (starboard side has a huge wooden control box that I just can't help but wack my head against any time time I'm working from that side).
#sailing #boatrepair