replacing bearings in alpha 1 outdrive. 1988
 

Could someone just give me a quick rundown on what I am in for? Special tools I need to get, or make?

the special tools are available now from the aftermarket. are you building the upper or lower? If its going behind that 383, you will need to purchase the Mercruiser HD1.5-1 upper gear set and use all Mercruiser bearings(tighter tolerance bearings). If its going behind a regular engine, you can buy a SEI aftermarket drive cheaper than you can build one. If you are bound to build it, pick up a factory Mercruiser manual and its all laid out in there, step by step. Mercruiser has probably the best manuals written, the aftermarket manuals are not so good.

Spare, I want to make sure this will work so hoping you can give me the go ahead with it.

http://www.mercaftermarkets.com/prod...Unit-1.62.html

that's the 1.62 ratio, used for 5.0L engines, it has the same amount of teeth on the drive gear and driven gear. If you are using it on a 5.7L you need the 1.5 ratio, and like i said, if its going behind that 383, you need to stay with factory mercury HD 1.5 gears(they offer a 1.32 gear set, but its not as strong as the 1.5)

Haha spare, nope its going behind a 305..LOL

then that will be fine.

i wish I had a picture of teh 21 sleekcraft i used to take care of, I built an Alpha 1 SS for it, it had 1.32 gears spinning a 27 Mirage, the boat had a troy Dennis 512 with a Mega Blower on it, supposed to make upwards of 750 hp, if some one wanted to race him, he told them to get up to around 75 and then hit it, most would back down. If he ever hit it from a stand still, it would have destroyed the gears in that drive. I'd put a new set of upper gears and bearings in each season just to be preventative