Engine alignment

[MaccaTXI]

Hi all

New to the Malibu way of life, but loving it so far. Picked up my TXi and have been enjoying it immensely.

During a look over the engine I found that the right hand forward engine mount bolt nuts were loose and the engine was a lot lower on this side. Are they meant to be reasonably even (level) on both sides?

I will be doing a check on the coupler alignment but would like to get it close prior to this.

TIA

Rob

[Levi900RR]

I remember on my Skier everything looking pretty even.

[85 Barefoot]

No reason to think it should not be level. Are you familiar with the alignment process?

[justgary]

Welcome to the crew.

If the other three sets of nuts are tight, I think I would start by snugging the loose ones up. If the alignment is off at all, level the engine as you fix the alignment.

Pictures are always best on this site....

[dalt1]

I had 1 loose nut on 12 VLX when I bought it with a little over 100 hrs. Check your nuts!

[Woodski]

@MaccaTXI: Yes, in theory the mounts should be level, although if there could be a tolerance stack that leads to the mounts not being level. In your case, given a loose mount that seems low, I would expect that to correctly get back to proper alignment, the mount should be level. Are the trans mounts level? I would loosen the shaft coupler to verify the mount most likely being low which should lead to a gap at the top, then set to same height as tight one and align from that point. You might also take a level to the engine and the boat floor to compare as a coarse measurement. Are there locking tabs on the mount to lock in the nuts when tightened? If not there should be at least on older setups there are.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Woodski

[Wayne]

Do it once and do it right. I had a front mount loosen up on my RLXI in the first 20 hours of ownership. Having that free play allowed the other mounts to move a little and had to have the shaft alignment done.

Find the procedure for doing a shaft alignment and use that to see if you can get with in tolerance with adjusting just the loose mount. If not then do the process right.

[MaccaTXI]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I levelled the mounts up and then loosened off the coupler bolts, I found then that both the front mounts needed to be lowered in order to have even tolerance around the coupler faces.

Hopefully it didn't do too many hours with the mount loose. I had only put 2 hours on it myself and it had only 76 on it when I picked it up.

At least I have a bit of piece of mind now knowing that it's reasonably close.

As a side note, I found that the coupler bolts were not tight also, so they got a good nip up after checking the alignment.

Regards

Mac.

[justgary]

Keep in mind that 0.003" is the tolerance limit for the coupler faces. Also, it is best to perform an alignment in the water so that the force from trailer or lift bunks isn't stressing the hull.