Mercruiser 6 cyclinder 165 vibration

"Hey Guys need your advice her

"Hey Guys need your advice here ...ive been working on this old girl all summer ( 1977 cheetah with a 165 merc) bought her from a farmer who had her setting out with a bunch of goats !!!....450.00 bought her ...anyway my fuel problem turned out to be a car distributor !..ok, got the right distributor installed and she purrs like a kitten ,,,now, after a couple outings im getting a LOT of vibration and noise when making turns ...just noticed one of the blades on the prop is bent pretty badly...how much vibration would this cause and would that also cause the noise when making turns ...the boat sat out in the field for a couple years uncovered ive greased all fittings i can see, replaced fuel pump, plugs, wires water lines, water pump, impeller, could it possibly be bearing or u-joint?..if so , how difficult is this to replace,,,im mechanically inclined but new to boat motors ? ...thanks"

"The blade can cause some seri

"The blade can cause some serious vibrations. When your boat make a growl or some kind of noise when turn to left or right, that usually indicates that your gimbal bearing is bad. Replacing it is not too bad as long as you follow the instructions on the manual."

I bet your noise on turning is

I bet your noise on turning is the u-joint inside the drive bellows. The drive needs to come off and the joint is replaced like a car drive shaft joint. you need to pound it or press it out of the shaft after removing the cerclips. careful as you can ruin it pretty easily.

"ha that all correct but, most

"ha that all correct but, most likely you have water in the bellows which means the rubber is propably rotton all of it. shift cable has now had water intrusion and will go out soon any how. gimble brng bad ujoints are bad but dont forget the bellows is the seal for the outrive also water has been getting in past the oil seal grooved out the stub shaft and will be hard to reseal without replcement. all normal sevice items on that age of a boat."

"Yup, U-joint for SURE! It wo

"Yup, U-joint for SURE! It would vibrate all the time if the prop was to blame. Vibration durring a turn is the U-joint. Carfull here - if the boat is very old, inspect the aluminum where the bellows seals as it may be corroded out and that is how the water got in. If it is corroded (needs to be VERY clean for the bellows to seal) you will need to get a new trasom shield (can you say $$$$) and you can not even get the M/C 165 sheild anymore. Good luck!"