Greetings again all 
1983 Ciera 2150 w/fresh (20 hours) 305 and AQ280 Outdrive.
I replaced the engine 2 seasons back, and she has been running like a champ.
During the engine swap, I found there was water in the U-Joint bellows (torn), so I replaced the bearing crosses and the fwd/aft PDS bearings/seals.
Last weekend, I started hearing a non-rhythmic clicking in the area of the outdrive. Searching the posts here and elsewhere, consensus pointed to the worse case scenario could be a bearing was rattling around in the PDS cavity. I always approach boat trouble-shooting as worse-case to try and alleviate major 'uh-oh's out on the water.
I removed the upper gear housing and verified it was not coming from the outdrive. So, engine has been moved forward and next weekend, I'll be pulling the primary drive shaft to inspect (new bearings/seals are on their way.)
What I'm wanting from you fine folks: When I pulled the upper gear housing, quite a bit of oil came out (1/8th of a quart perhaps?) of the upper U-Joint bellows. No oil on the aft seal of the PDS, so I'm pretty sure it came from the outdrive. Would this be remedied by an upper unit seal kit, or am I experiencing something more sinister than that?
Also, after pulling the upper gear unit, I noticed 'scoring' on one side of the shaft wall in the intermediate housing where the shaft coupler resides... I have not noticed any problems or unusual noises while shifting or in gear... Not sure what would have caused this. There was a time when my son-in-law started the motor with the drive partially up... He 'says' he never took it out of neutral tho... Could this be the culprit?
A few pics to show what I'm describing:
Attached files

1983 Ciera 2150 w/fresh (20 hours) 305 and AQ280 Outdrive.
I replaced the engine 2 seasons back, and she has been running like a champ.
During the engine swap, I found there was water in the U-Joint bellows (torn), so I replaced the bearing crosses and the fwd/aft PDS bearings/seals.
Last weekend, I started hearing a non-rhythmic clicking in the area of the outdrive. Searching the posts here and elsewhere, consensus pointed to the worse case scenario could be a bearing was rattling around in the PDS cavity. I always approach boat trouble-shooting as worse-case to try and alleviate major 'uh-oh's out on the water.
I removed the upper gear housing and verified it was not coming from the outdrive. So, engine has been moved forward and next weekend, I'll be pulling the primary drive shaft to inspect (new bearings/seals are on their way.)
What I'm wanting from you fine folks: When I pulled the upper gear housing, quite a bit of oil came out (1/8th of a quart perhaps?) of the upper U-Joint bellows. No oil on the aft seal of the PDS, so I'm pretty sure it came from the outdrive. Would this be remedied by an upper unit seal kit, or am I experiencing something more sinister than that?
Also, after pulling the upper gear unit, I noticed 'scoring' on one side of the shaft wall in the intermediate housing where the shaft coupler resides... I have not noticed any problems or unusual noises while shifting or in gear... Not sure what would have caused this. There was a time when my son-in-law started the motor with the drive partially up... He 'says' he never took it out of neutral tho... Could this be the culprit?
A few pics to show what I'm describing:
Attached files




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