I pulled my outdrive to check the alignment.
(2002 Mercruiser Alpha One outdrive.)

I've never done this before but I'm a machininst and a half assed
mechanic, so I think I can handle it.

My first question is....in the picture you can see that it looks like
the shaft has taken some heat judging by the coloration of the shaft.

http://home.comcast.net/~johnchaplain/shaft1.jpg


Is this normal or is this due to overheating because of misalignment?

The alignment tool only goes in about a third of the way into the
coupling before it binds up. My second question is I'm wondering how
bad the alignement is if the tool goes in freely at least a third of
the way, it seems that that must be pretty close. Is that offalignment
bad enough to have overheated the shaft?

TIA,
John C.