We'll I seem to have gotten myself stuck in a pickle. The previous owner installed a new Westerbeck 30B several months before I purchased the boat. (1977 Pearson 323) It turns out that the transmission (volvo ms) and vee-drive (walter) had no work done on them at that time and were simply bolted up to the new motor. The shift mechanism was getting very loose so I started doing some research on the volvo ms gearset. Needless to say I found very little information and even a simple rebuild was going to cost $1600 minimum. While I was thinking over my options the volvo really broke. Nothing like a loss of power followed by a large bang resulting in a call the the friendly tow company. Now that simple rebuild is going to cost more. So, I talked to the local BW velvet drive dealer and he said I could buy a BW model 71 (rebuild) for half that cost. Ok, that sounds good! He fixed some problems with the vee-drive (at high cost btw) and bolted on a fresh BW 71. Now here is the problem: The new transmission is almost 4 inches longer than the volvo ms! After loading the new unit in to the boat my stupidity caught up with me. A quick check with a tape measure confirmed what I could visually see. To get the new transmission in the motor has to move back!! (a lot too) So, what should I do? From a financial perspective rebuilding the volvo may still cost more but that depends on how much I can get if I return the velvet drive. I had a guy quote me around $700 to move the motor, bolt everything up and align it. Is a BW velvet drive transmission really worth the work? I'm worried that by moving the motor I'll open another can of worms and this already long story will get even longer. Any thoughts?