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Can anyone identify this sound?

W

wnjsmith

New member
Good day everyone. I’m new to the group and new to boats and outboards. I have experience in engine builds, drag builds, and Jeep builds so I am mechanically inclined but an outboard I’ve never touched.

I bought an old boat from a friend of mine that has a 95 130 Evinrude E130TLEOA. We took the boat on the lake on a Sunday and ran it for just over an hour. Everything seemed good so I brought it home.

On Wednesday morning there was a gear oil leak coming from the top of the lower unit, where it bolts onto the upper. When I pulled a plug I found water in the oil. There was no abnormal metal on the magnets.

I replaced the o-ring for the shift rod, the seal for the driveshaft with a back to back along with a back to back for the prop shaft—also replaced the o-rings on the prop shaft and drive shaft bearing housing. I replaced the water pump and put a very light coat of grease on the impeller cup. I double checked the shift rod length and reassembled. I replaced the oil, planning on a couple short spins and a few changes to clean out the contaminated oil.

Taking the boat for a spin, I have 25 lbs of water pressure (vs 20 on our Sunday test drive). About 30 minutes into the ride we started hearing a noise on deceleration from 4k to 3k. At 3k, the noise lasts for about 2-3 seconds (Link: Noise in Outboard ). If I drop straight to idle, it does not make the noise, or if it does it’s so quick it’s not noticeable. I thought it may be a new impeller sound, as it was so tight I could not spin the driveshaft by hand, but we’ve done a few oil changes and ran it a total of about 5 hours and the sound is the same.

I’m wondering if anyone has any idea of where to start and appreciate any advice.
 
racerone said:
sounds normal for quick deceleration.
Click to expand...
I’ve got an email notification for your suggestion of seeing what happens if I reduce speed slowly, but I’m not seeing it here. We’re getting ready to carry it out in a few and Ill do that.

When Googling about the noise, before coming here, it stated that a noise from the clutch dog was bad alignment. But then a sniffle could be killing me as well.
 
racerone said:
sounds normal for quick deceleration.
Click to expand...
Ok, I pulled the boat out of my shop and was messing with it before taking it to the lake. I feel neutral should be completely free spinning and no noise yet the prop would only spin clockwise while the controller is in neutral. I thought maybe it was because the motor was tilted so i let it down. This is the video of what I am seeing. Is this normal?

 
wnjsmith said:
So, finding out that pulling out the play on the prop shaft eliminates the sound so we’re going to adjust the shift rod out a little.
Click to expand...
There is no 'adjust the shift rod a little'. These shift rods are set to a specific height from the lower unit mating surface with the gear box in neutral and they need to be set exactly. Dangar Marine has a nice video for a DIY Evinrude Shift Rod Height Adjustment and you can find a table with shift rod heights here --> Promt Parts Shift Rod Height Tables
 
It's repaired.

@racerone had commented about the clutch dog which got me looking at that prop. That's when we found it was not totally disengaging. I didn't have this issue when I reinstalled the lower unit after replacing the seals but here we were.

My friend showed up in this process so we moved the throttle enough that we found out it was slightly in forward when the throttle was in neutral and would not engage the reverse properly. We removed the lower unit and measured but it was dead onto specs. I unscrewed the shift rod by 2/16 and played with the shifter a little and it clicked down 2/16 which put the prop into neutral. I'm thinking I may not have had the clutch dog in dead neutral when I adjusted the rod and it must have still be slightly out when I checked it after reinstallation.

After the adjustment, we reinstalled the lower unit and made a slight adjustment on the shift cable and it appeared to be working. We carried it back out to the lake and it runs like a top, shifts better, and the noise is gone. We have a slight noise that sounds something like someone sucking air through puckered lips and he said it was normal. We double checked the prop after pulling it back out of the water and it's still in neutral. Therefore, I'm good to go.

Racerone's comment about the clutch dog and Google AI saying that a clutch dog out of adjustment will make the same noise helped identify what was happening here. Thanks for your help.
 
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