Gear noise in outdrive

[holorinhal]

We went out to the lake last weekend and every thing was working and sounding nice and quiet after the gimbal bearing replacement. We went for a long cruise and after returning, the drive is making a lot of gear noise.
The noise does not sound like the grumbleing of the gimbal.
The noise sounds like gears that are not meshed together properly or bareley engaged? The noise is constant,no matter if the gear is in neutral,foreward or reverse and the noise does not change when the steering wheel is turned. If I place my hand on the bell housind I can feel the vibration of the noise really well and I can allso feel it down thru the upper and lower parts of the drive, but it seems to more promminent at the bell housing.
The gear noise does not seem to hinder the performance or operation of the drive. The drive had fresh gear oil in it before the trip, and I changed out the gear lube again after the noise started. The gear lube that came out did not look out of the odinary.
Does any one have any ideas about what this noise could be and where I should start looking?

 

[Don S]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

What are we working on here, year too.

 

[holorinhal]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

I am sorry. It is a 1981 Mercruiser 260 with pre alpha drive.

 

[dubs283]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

u-joints??

have you had any drive service performed recently like a reseal or anything that would require disassembly of the drive??

 

[holorinhal]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

u-joints??

have you had any drive service performed recently like a reseal or anything that would require disassembly of the drive??

Yes I replaced the gimbal bearing, drive shaft bellows ,shift cable and bellows, sift shaft bushings and arm, and changed gearlube.

 

[dubs283]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

what did you use for gear lube??

did you check/grease the u-joints and check engine alignment when you had the drive off??

 

[jerryjerry05]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

Pull your drive and check the NEW bearing.
This doesn't sound like your problem but something to try.Take the top of the drive off and look inside.Re-tourqe at 20ft#s.J

 

[holorinhal]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

It honestly does not sound like the rumbleing of the gimbal. I am not sure exactly what bad u-joints sound like.

Here is a pic of the inside of the top of the drive. The one gear that You can see does not look bad ,but can only se half of the gear. There is some tiny metal pieces that I found ,like the one that You see on top of the bearing. The gear oil looks like it has some silver film in it .Could this be metal particles floating? also when I pulled the cap biolts out there was metal shavings on the ends of the bolts. So I know there is metal in there, just how much and which gears?...

 

[dubs283]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

looks like you got a chipped gear tooth

pieces of metal that big like the one on top of the bearing is bad news

time to tear down, clean and inspect the drive

 

[Joshua Nichols]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

That shiny silver oil may look pretty but, that's not a good thing.. You just did a recent lube change too.. It's not U joints.. I didn't even see those chunks.. DAng that bites

 

[jerryjerry05]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

Pieces in there aren't good.Drain the oil and look for the rest of the chunks.The upper is gonna need to be rebuilt.
Your gonna need to do this before the parts leak down into the lower.I'd take the lower apart and clean it just in case.!!J

 

[holorinhal]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

Yea Well I do not know what the cost of a rebuild kit is, but i wonder if it is even worth rebuilding, or just save over the winter and buy a new drive. I know nothing of the history and it is an older pre alpha. I was just hopping to get at least one or two more trips out of it.......

 

[njmedic3306]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

I am not a mechanic but it sounds like your thinking like I would. Its the end of the season (at least in NJ) and who knows what you will find on craigslist or ebay. April is a long ways away.....At least this didnt happen at the begining of the season.

 

[meesh]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

You can buy a brand new SEI drive for less than you can rebuild that one for.
It will come with a 3 year warranty and can be bought right here at IBoats.

 

[holorinhal]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

You can buy a brand new SEI drive for less than you can rebuild that one for.
It will come with a 3 year warranty and can be bought right here at IBoats.

Yup, That is exactly what I was thinking. 1300 bucks is not too bad for a new drive with waranty.

 

[holorinhal]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

Well I drained the gear lube to have a look see at the upper gears and whalla! there she is, a broken gear tooth on the lower gear.
I will have to see how much the parts are to rebuild the upper to see if it is even worth it. I guess I will drop the drive and split it apart and inspect every thing to see if there is any more damage.
wonder what would have caused that to happen? I have not hit any thing. It sue does make alot of noise for only one tooth to be broken. Oh well such is boating!

 

[Joshua Nichols]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

Looks like a good winter project...

 

[imported_TheMan]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

It looks like your other gear teeth on that gear have a substantial amout of wear/abrasion. I would venture the gear oil went a long time without being changed and ran contaminated on the teeth...

If you can get a picture of the fracture we might be able to tell you failure mode.. If you care (since you are buying a new one).

 

[Flukinicehole]

Re: Gear noise in outdrive

Just had the same thing happen to mine. I know it is probably coincidence but I always used Klotz oil. The first time I put the high performance mercriser stuff in kaboom. I ended up putting a tooth through the housing so no rebuild for me. Luckily I had another one in the garage that I pulled from a boat before it went to the one yard. I took it apart and resealed it now I have to put it back together and pressure test. For the price you can not beat the new drives they have here. I'm sure I will be ordering one in the next few years.