Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

[jmcknight]

I have a 99 Sea ray with a 3.0 with alpha 1 gen 2. the Engine is a 97, and the outdrive is 99.

I will describe background in a next, but the issue is, since I aligned the engine coupler bearing etc the RPM's go much higher than before and the boat does not move as fast, according to GPS.

Background - I took a good engine out of a boat with a hole in it and put it in a boat with a bad engine. Everything was great, ran it twice a week, then realized I needed to align the engine with the outdrive, which i had not done. So ordered the alignment tool, aligned it, and put it back on. Well, when I did that, I tightened the 6 nuts on that hold the outdrive to the bellhousing and I did not have the shifter aligned correctly between the outdrive and bellhousing. So basically I believe I bent either the the shaft going to the outdrive or bellhousing because when we got out on the lake, it wouldn't engage in gear until it the engine was already reving up. We were able to adjust it above the engine, but it's VERY close to start reving while it is going in gear. And now when I cruise, I go slower and at higher RPM's. Nothing else changed, except gaskets and orings that you get with the kit when you remove the outdrive.

Any thoughts on the cause? Going to dig into it tomorrow.

Thanks so much!

 

[winterfunguy]

Re: Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

Is the outdrive making any noise like the gears aren't meshing? If no noise is heard I would suspect a faulty drive coupler.

 

[dingdongs]

Re: Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

go get yourself a new shaft and then all should work again.someone didn't read the manual!!!!!!!!!

 

[dubs283]

Re: Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

is the engine you replaced the same size as the new one, i.e. the old/bad engine was a 3.0L and the new engine is a 3.0L??

is the drive the same/original to the boat??

you should pull the drive and replace the shift shaft/bent/faulty shift components, you are only going to make things worse if you keep running it that way

 

[jmcknight]

Re: Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

the original engine was a 3.0 L and new was 3.0LX. The outdrive is the original outdrive to this boat. All was working perfect until I aligned engine, was running about 37 at 4700 rpm, shifting great and everything. I just wanted to prevent any major future repair needs. I still have the old outdrive that was on the engine before I put it on this boat.

There was no noise on the boat, everything sounded great. And it ran great too, just was revving too high and not going fast enough.

Which shaft would get bent, the one coming from the bellhousing or outdrive? usually in situations like this one half is weaker than the other and more prone to damage.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

I go slower and at higher RPM's. Nothing else changed,

Ayuh,... How slow, at What rpms,..??

 

[Don S]

Re: Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

Which shaft would get bent, the one coming from the bellhousing or outdrive? usually in situations like this one half is weaker than the other and more prone to damage.

Either one or both. You will just have to look at them.

 

[jmcknight]

Re: Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

34 - and i think it got up to 5500 before I realized it. I had NEVER had an issue with going over spec WOT 4400-4800

 

[dingdongs]

Re: Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

did you change the prop too and are you sure its not spinning.if it has a rubber inner paint it to mark it and try again.your gonna blow that engine at them revs so is there any noticeable over revving getting onto the plane as the torque on drive and prop will probably be at its greatest

 

[jmcknight]

Re: Thought I was doing great, but I screwed up! help!

it only got over 4800 RPM *one* time. That was when I initially realized the issue. So there will be no engine blowing going on.

I did not change the prop. I just took the outdrive off and separated the top and bottom and opened up the top of the upper. The inside of the upper looked gorgeous.

What I did find:
The shaft in the bellhousing that is vertical and mates up with the shift shaft in the outdrive -- the pin that holds the shaft to other piece that mates with the cable was bent and I could not remove it. I cut the shaft with an angle grinder removed it, and replaced it with one off of another outdrive I have. My cousin is coming over this afternoon, he is a mechanic and he's going to look at it as well. When we took it on the lake we just adjusted shift cable above the engine so we could still go wakeboarding, that way it wouldn't shift while rev'd up.

Picture shows shaft that I am talking about, that is the new one shift shaft.