Hello fellow boaters, Recently, my portside outdrive starting making noise when the outdrive is in the upward position and either when I turn hard to the left or right. With both outdrives down and at idle speed there is no noise. How do I know whether this is a gimbal bearing or U-joint that needs replacement. I am getting ready to bring my boat to the local Sea Ray dealer to have them give me an estimate for repair. Has anyone else experienced this problem and what can I expect the cost range to be to make the necessary repair? CSMady
How far up are you trimming it when you hear this noise? Is it past the "trim" range, and into the "tilt" range? Bearing will usually be a grumble, u-joint a clacking sound.
Dennis, It is when the outdrive is past the trim range while at idle speed. Unfortunately, it sounds more like a clacking sound. Thanks, CSMady
Ideally, Mady, the engine shouldn't be running if the drive is trimmed up that far. There's been changes made over the years to help with this, but it's still best to avoid that. What happens is exactly what you are hearing - the knuckles of the u-joint start to bang into each other with high drive angles - and it's usually more pronounced when steering, than when straight ahead. The high drive angles also puts more stress on the gimbal bearing. I realize there's times when it can't be avoided - but whenever possible, keep the drive in the trim range and it'll have a longer, healthier life. At this point, though, if you're not hearing it at normal trim ranges, I wouldn't worry about it. Keep an eye... errrr... "Ear" on it and if you hear it getting much worse, then address it.
Dennis, I have a boat lift in which I back the boat up into, so to avoid hitting or getting hung up on the lift that is when I trim both outdrives up. I barely trim the outdrives up when on plane cruising at about 25 - 30 mph. I guess my main concern is whether this was going to cause any additional damage to my port side outdrive internally with running it like this or it would best to replace the u-joint now. If I am not causing any more damage and the replacement cost will be the same later, then I am okay with that. If it were your boat, you would just listen to see if the condition or noise got louder? CSMady
Mady, it's not abnormal to hear sounds when the drive is tilted up quite a bit, especially into the tilt range. Actually, I'm surprised you're just now hearing it and also that you're not hearing it on the stbd side. Granted, I'm not there to hear it, but if things are good in the normal trim range, I'd leave it alone. If it starts to get worse, then address it - or at least time it to be done when you pull the drive for other regular maintenance.
Dennis, I ran both engines independent of each other, so if I heard the same sound in the tilt range from both outdrives than maybe I would have thought this to be somewhat normal. Anyway, thank you for your good advice and I will just listen out to see if the noise happens to get louder. CSMady
