Good evening. it's been a while since I've been to this board to help with problems (that's a good thing though!!!
).
We were up on the the Pacific Ocean (near Tofino, British Columbia) this past week. Boat running well. Lots of improvements and new things over the past couple of years. All good!!! Fishing ok, companions delightful, weather good.
But, then when I'm starting to feel a bit smug, we were running offshore and I picked up (rather suddenly) a pretty good vibration. We immediately drop off the RPMS and it gets lot better, but I can still feel it. I quick phone call to my friend, Rick, and his first thought was a dinged prop. Per his suggestion, I changed to a spare prop that is perfect. Unfortunately, no improvement. We made a decision to continue our fishing trip as things seemed to work okay at slow speed (I also do have a kicker motor that we could use in case of complete failure). Over the next few days, we put 25 hours (mostly at trolling speed - 650 rpms) and some at displacement speed (2000 RPMs @ 7 MPH), but no fast planing work at all. Not getting worse.
Since that point, I did a little more diagnosis work and here's a list of some other facts:
Last year, I put in a rebuilt transmission (upper unit). This included new bearing crosses. I also pulled the engine and replaced Primary Drive Shaft (pds) bearings last year too. I've also kept that cavity well greased too. I also replaced the Borg Warner coupler that bolts on the flywheel.
When I had it up on the trailer yesterday, I checked the drive dipstick and oil was good. I also opened the bellows and saltwater poured out (yikes - thats not so good). :sorrow:
So, I'm kind of leaning towards some kind of problem with the Ujoints (crosses). I am taking the prop to a prop shop tomorrow to have it checked and balanced, but I'm pretty sure it is ok.
We do have another trip coming up offshore in a week, so I have limited time to diagnosis and/or fix. The boat is on the trailer up there (British Columbia), but I have lots of room to work on it in the parking lot when we go back.
So, my question to you helpful people is actually two-fold:
1) Do you think we'd be okay just running it at slow RPMs for another week (approximately 80 hours on the meter)?
2) if not, what's your best guess? (Ujoints/crosses, lower unit bearing, transmission (again), or something else).
Thank you for your thoughs,
~markb
Oh, yes, the details that everyone always want: 1985 2655, AQ260A engine, V/P 270 drive.

We were up on the the Pacific Ocean (near Tofino, British Columbia) this past week. Boat running well. Lots of improvements and new things over the past couple of years. All good!!! Fishing ok, companions delightful, weather good.
But, then when I'm starting to feel a bit smug, we were running offshore and I picked up (rather suddenly) a pretty good vibration. We immediately drop off the RPMS and it gets lot better, but I can still feel it. I quick phone call to my friend, Rick, and his first thought was a dinged prop. Per his suggestion, I changed to a spare prop that is perfect. Unfortunately, no improvement. We made a decision to continue our fishing trip as things seemed to work okay at slow speed (I also do have a kicker motor that we could use in case of complete failure). Over the next few days, we put 25 hours (mostly at trolling speed - 650 rpms) and some at displacement speed (2000 RPMs @ 7 MPH), but no fast planing work at all. Not getting worse.
Since that point, I did a little more diagnosis work and here's a list of some other facts:
Last year, I put in a rebuilt transmission (upper unit). This included new bearing crosses. I also pulled the engine and replaced Primary Drive Shaft (pds) bearings last year too. I've also kept that cavity well greased too. I also replaced the Borg Warner coupler that bolts on the flywheel.
When I had it up on the trailer yesterday, I checked the drive dipstick and oil was good. I also opened the bellows and saltwater poured out (yikes - thats not so good). :sorrow:
So, I'm kind of leaning towards some kind of problem with the Ujoints (crosses). I am taking the prop to a prop shop tomorrow to have it checked and balanced, but I'm pretty sure it is ok.
We do have another trip coming up offshore in a week, so I have limited time to diagnosis and/or fix. The boat is on the trailer up there (British Columbia), but I have lots of room to work on it in the parking lot when we go back.
So, my question to you helpful people is actually two-fold:
1) Do you think we'd be okay just running it at slow RPMs for another week (approximately 80 hours on the meter)?
2) if not, what's your best guess? (Ujoints/crosses, lower unit bearing, transmission (again), or something else).
Thank you for your thoughs,
~markb
Oh, yes, the details that everyone always want: 1985 2655, AQ260A engine, V/P 270 drive.
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