Anyone have vertical pumps with a ridged coupling that are not installed prefectly vertical? I have noticed two vertical pumps at my plant that seem to lean to one side a little. Maybe about 5 deegrees off center. Are there any problems caused by this. I know it can't be a good thing, I haven't had time to really check it out.

This is a very interesting observation and I wonder if it was done purposely.
I am no scientist but could it be that whomever designed or did the installation wanted to circumvent the effect of the gyroscopic phenomena that we often see in a perfectly verticaly aligned installation.
When on a slight angle, as well as the driven equipment, is it possible that the weight of the rotating equipment tends to rest on one side, therefore eliminating any movement of the rotating elements due to bearing clearance, etc.

Like another forum user likes to state in his posts : I may be totally wrong but...

MarkoLeo

The vast majority of the units I deal with are vertical and I have never came across one that called for the unit to be set off of vertical. I also have one unit very large that was not installed truly vertical and what I have seen when this unit was pulled for recondition is that the wear is all on one side because the shaft is no vertical which leads to increased wear and decreased pump life.