funny smell and noise 1998 sting ray 4.3 l mercury

81_chapparel194

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
341
ok a friends boat problem. after the boat has say for about 5 years he decided to bring it back to life. after a new water pump in lower unit, and a new starter and fluid changes we fired it off. after a few minutes of rough running it leveled off and ran smooth as new. (on the hose) played with electricals to see what worked what didnt and luckily everything but the trim up worked. after a slight tap on the relay it now works. so today we decided to take it to the local lake to try it out. backed it in the water fired right up backed off trailer tied to dock. waited on him to park and make way back to dock and we were off. WOW boat ran perfect. lots of power quick to hop on plane. after about 5 minutes of running smelled a funny smell kinda like brakes or clutch getting hot. and smoke in the engine compartment. after that started noticing a weird vibration type noise. not really grinding but like a rotating vibration. almost like what you would expect a bad high rpm bearing to make when its dry. stopped checked all fluids even lower unit oil (has resevoir in engine compartment) and it made no difference if it was in neutral forward or reverse. although noise seemed worse when turning the wheel to turn. i suggested at first maybe a bad bearing in the lower unit output shaft but then realized it did it in neutral too, then thought maybe dry (bad) u joints in the drive shaft. any ideas?
 

1ruralmailman

Seaman
Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
59
Re: funny smell and noise 1998 sting ray 4.3 l mercury

i would say either a bad u joint,or gimball bearing.these would be my first suspicous place to look.
 

1ruralmailman

Seaman
Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
59
Re: funny smell and noise 1998 sting ray 4.3 l mercury

it could also be the coupler started going as these are basically a ball of rubber shoved in a metal housing with a spline receiver inside it.age,and time do bad things to these when they start going the definitly give off a burned rubber smell.did you check the alignment on this?with it sitting awhile the stringers might have settled some and kicked this off.
 

81_chapparel194

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
341
Re: funny smell and noise 1998 sting ray 4.3 l mercury

not a rubber smell at all. more like hot metal.. or hot brakes or hot clutch smell.
 

flipbro

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Feb 8, 2013
Messages
830
Re: funny smell and noise 1998 sting ray 4.3 l mercury

Pull the drive more then likely your gimble bearing! Then you can check ujoints and coupler will in there!
 
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