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Lower unit problems

S

slickcrafthbc

Member
"Guys,
Earlier I had wrote ab

"Guys,
Earlier I had wrote about my boat and how slow it was. concluded either a spun prop or just very dirty bottom. Well the boat is hauled and I think I found something. I put the drives in forward. One I am not able to turn the prop forward. The other however I am able to turn intermeadiately if a back turn it then furn it forward again. Makes a ugly dull metal clicking sound in the lower gear housing. I am suspecting that I was really only getting the power to the prop on one drive only. In reverse gear it spins in both directions as well but even more freely! Sounds like more than a spun prop as the prop nut / shaft is turning with the prop. What do you think should look at first."
 
"Remove the shift cable (f

"Remove the shift cable (from the drive to the mechanism on the motor) and see how freely it will shift for you. Your cable may be binding or stretched and causing problems. When you shift to forward at the helm, the shift lever at the front of the drive should point straight forward and will allow removal of the whole drive, if necessary. If you manually shift to forward and the lever is obviously not in line with the keel, there could be a problem with the shift crank or something else in the drive. Personally, if I had this problem, I would back the nuts off on the drive enough that the shift lever is free and shift it to see if it engages properly when the lever is turned manually. At the same time, the motor's alignment could be checked if the drive was removed but I wouldn't get carried away yet. If it's cocked and binding, you'll have other issues, too. The gimbal bearing could be bad, but that usually sounds like a bunch of marbles bouncing around. You could have bad bearings in the drive, the bearing carrier could have problems, the drive could have hit something at the cone and pushed the assembly forward slightly, etc.

When you shift to forward, you should only be able to turn the prop forward with the clicking sound while keeping the shift lever from moving. Turning it backward releases the clutch by causing the shift crank to rotate and allow the spool to slide on the shaft. Shifting to reverse should allow you to turn the prop backward with clicking, again while holding the shift lever in place. You should have total resistance if you try to turn the prop counter to forward or reverse. If you look at a diagram of this type of drive, you'd see that the clutch is a sleeve with wedge shaped 'dogs' on it and the clicking is the sound of the dogs sliding over the corresponding wedges on the forward and reverse gears. That's normal.

I would be looking at the shift cables first, then the gearcase."
 
"You may be tricking yourself,

"You may be tricking yourself, for the props rotate in opposite directions, to avoid 'prop walk'.

Are you turning BOTH props in the forward direction? Note the angle of the blades.

Jeff"
 
I should have read this one cl

I should have read this one closer to see that you have dual drives. I still think I would remove the shift cable from the affected mechanism to figure out where the problem(s) lie.
 
"put drives in fwd. gear. try

"put drives in fwd. gear. try to turn bacward. alpha drive is either in gear, or not. no slip in there. slip would be prop or coupler."
 
"by the way, You won't nec

"by the way, You won't necessarily be able to detect a spun hub by hand. engine has a bit more power than Your arm. if removed, bad hub may be visible."
 
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