99 Ficht 200 squeaking, what could be the cause?

[Bdoss85]

Hello everyone. I recently have been having some issues with my Ficht and finally got a couple of them straightened out. Took it out on a test run last night and the motor started squeaking so I brought it back to the dock. This afternoon I took it back out after spraying some wd40 on the shaft under the stator to see if that's what was squeaking and it helped. Although after maybe 10 minutes or so of running the squeak slowly came back. Has anyone had this problem or knows what could be causing the squeak? It's fairly loud and does it in and out of gear. Thanks in advance!

 

[Faztbullet]

Look and see if bolts broken or missing on upper bearing housing.......

 

[Bdoss85]

K, Is that something that I can see without having to pull the flywheel? Thanks!

 

[Bdoss85]

Sorry spoke too soon. Just went out and took a look and they all appeared to be there and tight. Couldn't get a wrench on all of them but the ones I could were tight.

 

[racerone]

Power steering ??

 

[Bdoss85]

It has a seastar hydraulic steering system on it. It sounds like it's coming from the shaft under the stator/flywheel. I sprayed wd40 on it and it stopped for a while then slowly came back. I've done some googling and haven't found anything with this particular issue. The nut on top appears to be tight as well. Just not sure what all is under there that could squeak? It does sound just like a belt squeaking though.

 

[racerone]

Power steering was avaiable as an add on item.--Is there a power steering unit on it , yes or no ?--------Also you might want to remove the flywheel to look for loose magnets.

 

[Bdoss85]

Ohh OK. I gotcha. I just went and double checcked and didn't see one. Do I need a flywheel puller to get it off or can I just unbolt it and pull it off by hand?

 

[Faztbullet]

Grab the flywheel and pickup on it ,if it raises over 1/8 inch the bolts have come out of the lower end and crankshaft has dropped and rubbing on stator...this is a common problem on the 99-01 models.

 

[Bdoss85]

OK, well I believe I found the problem. When I went to take the flywheel nut off to pull the flywheel and inspect the stator the nut had almost no torque on it. It popped right off with almost no effort by the breaker bar. It was more than hand tight but not by much. Tightened to 150ft lbs and test ran it last night and it solved almost all of my issues. Boat idles better, cruises at lower rpms now, doesn't shake and the squeaking is gone. Thanks everyone for your help!