43 LX Alpha Oneexcessive noise from outdrive

"I replaced my engine coupler,

"I replaced my engine coupler, U-joints, drive shaft and gimbal bearing on my 1989 Sea Ray. I used alignment tool to align bearing and engine so lower uint would go in with no resistance. Everything seems to be working great in the driveway and in the water. My idle has been a little high, 800-900 RPM. When in gear it sounds normal, when I shift into nuetral, there seems to be more of a whine from the back of the boat. Any ideas or thoughts? There has been a little bit of metal shavings on the lower unit drain plug. Refilled with high permormance Merc lube this spring."

"You didnt get inside the driv

"You didnt get inside the drive when you had it off?

If you're not offshoring, I would suggest you wait for the sound to get worse. If it's your gimble it will get louder. Doesnt sound like ujoints,btw. Just thoughts."

"You may want to pull the top

"You may want to pull the top cover off the drive and inspect the upper gears. If they are wearing and making metal, you need to take the whole drive in for servicing.
If they look good, you may be OK. A few TINY slivers of metal on the plug magnet is fairly normal, but anything larger is cause for dissassembly and inspection. You don't want to wait until it gets real bad, as the metal bits will take out all the bearings as well. Worse, if a gear breaks up you could ruin the housing as well. Then it's major bucks to fix.
Rod"

"Would the gears wearing be th

"Would the gears wearing be the cause of the louder noise in nuetral? in forward or reverse it is much quieter. If the gears are wearing, it sounds like it is best to have it serviced ASAP. What would I want to get done? Total rebuild? buy a rebuilt leg and give my core? Other options?"

"The topside gears are turning

"The topside gears are turning always. The bottom gears do the shifting. It may be that putting a load on the gears quietens them or a noisy bearing when you shift into gear. I would sure inspect the topside gears ASAP, and go from there.
When you replaced the U joints, did you have the top assembly apart? If so, was the proper preload torque put on the input shaft bearing pack? This is critical, depending who you talk to.
If it's only the topside bearings gone, that shud be all you need, but I would get the bottom end torn apart and inspected, and new seals and pump impeller put in as a minimum.
A new Merc leg is costly, but an SEI replacement is much less money. Depends how close to OEM you want to stay.
Rod"

my "wait till it gets wors

my "wait till it gets worse" advice is based on how inexpensive and reliable the SEI drives are. Cheaper to simply replace the upper unit. SEI upppers are $695.