Chirping/ squeaking noise at Bravo III drive

[Camano Hal]

After servicing the drive and engine oil today, and restarting the boat, I began to notice a chirping/ squeaking noise during idle, when the boat was running on the muffs. I don't recall this noise when I warmed up the boat earlier in the day.

This sound seems to be coming from the drive (can not be heard in the engine bay) but heard well at the outdrive.

I brought the RPMS up to 1K and the noise intensified. But the noise does not change when turning the steering, or altering the trim adjustments.

I did notice that the noise dissappears as soon as I place the drive into reverse..... (noise is present in neutral and forward only)

I lubed the engine coupler, and gimbal bearing but the noise remains.

I wondered if somehow a pocket of air in the drive formed when I was refilling.....but I have never had that happen before...

Just thought I would see if any one had ideas.

[Webjammin]

Typical of a coupler that needs grease, did you grease both zerk fittings on the coupler ?

[Camano Hal]

My coupler only has one zerk fitting. Do some have more than one?

[Webjammin]

Take a look at this pic some do and some dont, but if it does it will be 180 degrees from the other.

http://www.boatingwithtr.com/Members/images/EngineCouplers.gif

Great service info on the site where this pic is from. http://www.boatingwithtr.com/Members/BravoService.aspx

[Camano Hal]

Thanks Webjammin. Mine looks like the one in the left illustration with a single zerk.

[Ron Jones]

Thank you guys as well.....I missed these fittings in my maintenance as well. Cought it just in time our maiden voyage is next weekend. Great website for the bravo 3 maintenance as well !!

[Nehalennia]

Yep sounds like the coupler. Get it in there real deep if you're not able to reach the zircs.

[Chass]

Funny, I was just looking for this exact information. However mine is a Volvo. I get an intermittant squeeking at idle but it goes away when I idle up a bit. It was getting worse and now when I idle up I get a loud grinding noise. I think the bearing is shot in my coupler.

I'm going to try greasing it via the grease zirk on the top of the bellhousing to see if that changes the noise. (I think that greases the intermediate bearing, whatever its called) Either way though, I'm pulling the engine to put new bearings in and new U joints while I'm at it. I don't want to have any issues when we are on the water for two weeks this summer.

Chass
ct

[Camano Hal]

Took our boat (Bring On Another Thousand) into the $hop today. They are going to diagnose it this week and let me know. I will update once I get more information.

[gpspowell]

Not to downplay the importance of tracking down adventitious noises but I'm 62 years old, if I was to ever hear chirping or squeaking from my BIII (or anywhere else) I'd think a hearing miracle had happened.

[TacomaCouple]

Funny, I was just looking for this exact information. However mine is a Volvo. I get an intermittant squeeking at idle but it goes away when I idle up a bit. It was getting worse and now when I idle up I get a loud grinding noise. I think the bearing is shot in my coupler.

I'm going to try greasing it via the grease zirk on the top of the bellhousing to see if that changes the noise. (I think that greases the intermediate bearing, whatever its called) Either way though, I'm pulling the engine to put new bearings in and new U joints while I'm at it. I don't want to have any issues when we are on the water for two weeks this summer.

Chass
ct

Holy Mother of God!!!!!

I was JUST about to write a new post on this subject. That is exactly what is happening to our boat!!! Yup, as soon as we her her the throttle for 3-4 seconds and she get's going, all the squeaking and grinding stops and she sounds and acts like she is suppose to.

Shouldn't my mechanic have caught this issue since he just finished a complete go through on the engine and outdrive? Something smells fishy to me.....

Anyway...I need to figure out where the "Coupler" is, what kind of grease to use and how to grease it...if that will take care of the proble.

[TacomaCouple]

...just spoke with my mechanic and he wants to take a ride on my boat since he thinks some things will not be heard in his work shop VS on the water and wants a 100% understanding about what I hear and feel so he can get to work fixing whatever is up while I'm out of town.

[Camano Hal]

Not to downplay the importance of tracking down adventitious noises but I'm 62 years old, if I was to ever hear chirping or squeaking from my BIII (or anywhere else) I'd think a hearing miracle had happened.

:iconbiggrin: Funny, but the boat was out of the water, and the noise could get very loud, I bet you could even hear it.

Any how the bad news was that the noise was from inside the outdrive. After the shops technician dissasembled the drive, there was no single individual component that was obviously the noisy part.

However there was alot of wear and tear in the bearings and gear set. I spent a half hour with the technician looking over the problems found.

The gear set was worn hard and unevenly, and bearings showed uneven (out of true) running and pitting......a cracked surface on one piece, and just alot of stuff that could be the issue. Regardless of what caused the noise, all the components with wear are getting replaced. Essentially a rebuild of the upper and lower drive.

I wonder how long I could have gone before it came apart on its own, but who really wants to be driving the boat when that happens?

Only 600 hours and 8 years with annual gear lube changes. Never any water in the drive. Seems premature, but I guess I am just hard on stuff.

They should have her rebuilt and installed in the boat middle of this week, and the plan is to have it ready before the weekend for our first boat trip.

[Camano Hal]

Oh Chass, the bearing greased by the zerk on the outside transom housing is for the "gimble" bearing...
The "coupler" is located directly behind the engine inside....
Both have to be greased, unless they are a design with no zerks.

I know zero about Volvos, so I can't be much help. But the concept of how the engine couples to the outdrive should be the same.

[Nehalennia]

:iconbiggrin: Funny, but the boat was out of the water, and the noise could get very loud, I bet you could even hear it.

Any how the bad news was that the noise was from inside the outdrive. After the shops technician dissasembled the drive, there was no single individual component that was obviously the noisy part.

However there was alot of wear and tear in the bearings and gear set. I spent a half hour with the technician looking over the problems found.

The gear set was worn hard and unevenly, and bearings showed uneven (out of true) running and pitting......a cracked surface on one piece, and just alot of stuff that could be the issue. Regardless of what caused the noise, all the components with wear are getting replaced. Essentially a rebuild of the upper and lower drive.

I wonder how long I could have gone before it came apart on its own, but who really wants to be driving the boat when that happens?

Only 600 hours and 8 years with annual gear lube changes. Never any water in the drive. Seems premature, but I guess I am just hard on stuff.

They should have her rebuilt and installed in the boat middle of this week, and the plan is to have it ready before the weekend for our first boat trip.

Hal it may be that your wear is due to alignment or lack there of. I've only had my boat a year but I will be having the drive aligned annually.

Best of luck. See you on the water.

[Camano Hal]

Hal it may be that your wear is due to alignment or lack there of.

I wondered that also. But every year I have either had a shop align it, or I have done it myself. So now that it is in the shop, I had them check that, and they found that the engine alignment was dead on.

I am told that poor alignment results in damage to the coupler, but I doubt it would do anything to the outdrive since the U-joints allow the drive to pivot.

So I really don't know what caused it. It has always had its annual service, and I don't think I am hard on it. I am however suspicious about wether the factory assembled it with the proper preloads, etc. ....But who knows?

I will just be happy to have it fixed and back on the water soon.

[Nehalennia]

I wondered that also. But every year I have either had a shop align it, or I have done it myself. So now that it is in the shop, I had them check that, and they found that the engine alignment was dead on.

I am told that poor alignment results in damage to the coupler, but I doubt it would do anything to the outdrive since the U-joints allow the drive to pivot.

So I really don't know what caused it. It has always had its annual service, and I don't think I am hard on it. I am however suspicious about wether the factory assembled it with the proper preloads, etc. ....But who knows?

I will just be happy to have it fixed and back on the water soon.

Yeah, well sorry to hear about that either way. It sucks to have these types of repairs when you're already doing your best to maintain the boat properly.

Best of luck

[SomeSailor]

Yeah. Engine alignment wouldn't have caused that. Your engine is very seldom run dead-straight ahead anyhow, so the U-Joints and gimbal bearing are always carrying some load.

The problem with complicated gear meshes is that it only takes one small part to be out of spec, or carry a defect that will affect the lash and load of everything else in there. Sooner or later everything wears prematurely.

Luckily it sounds like you have a mechanic who's on the ball.

[Camano Hal]

Ya, he is pretty good. After he got a more in depth look at the parts and pieces, he found out what caused the noise. It was a bushing/ bearing that would intermittently ride up and contact with a gear. You could see where it had worn the name and number right off the edge of it.

And I consider my self somewhat lucky, because there was so much going on quietly inside that drive. Surely at some point there would have been a failure and it could have made for a really bad day on the water.

Looks like I will be able to pick her up today.

[Go Aweigh2452]

Ya, he is pretty good. After he got a more in depth look at the parts and pieces, he found out what caused the noise. It was a bushing/ bearing that would intermittently ride up and contact with a gear. You could see where it had worn the name and number right off the edge of it.

And I consider my self somewhat lucky, because there was so much going on quietly inside that drive. Surely at some point there would have been a failure and it could have made for a really bad day on the water.

Looks like I will be able to pick her up today.


Sounds like good news... Good job on the preventative maintenance...

[SomeSailor]

Looks like I will be able to pick her up today.

What were the damages for an upper rebuild? ($$$)

[Nehalennia]

Sounds like good news... Good job on the preventative maintenance...

Indeed.

Hal
You heading out today?

[Camano Hal]

What were the damages for an upper rebuild? ($$$)

You don't want to know......:mad: ....but is more than $$$....

I am not sure what the break down is, but it was a full lower and upper rebuild with new shift cable, and updated shift mechanism to fix the stiff shift issue. One of the gear sets alone was $600. $300 bearing carrier. Plus pretty much all the bearings, etc. $$$$$

[Camano Hal]

Indeed.

Hal
You heading out today?

Tommorrow (Sat) we are heading out to Friday Harbor for the weekend, and will stop at Sucia for Monday night.

[Nehalennia]

Tommorrow (Sat) we are heading out to Friday Harbor for the weekend, and will stop at Sucia for Monday night.

We'll be at Jones.

[Camano Hal]

Jones is one place we have never been to. Every time we have wanted to go there, the water inside the bay was kind of rough. The Admiral usually puts the Kabash on situations like that pretty fast. We would get on a mooring buoy and after a few minutes of rocking around she would say, not a chance, we are going somewhere else. :lol:

Just bad timing every time for us.

[TacomaCouple]

Update:

On Friday afternoon we had our mechanic meet us at the boat so he could see and hear what was happening. As soon as we turne it on he knew the problem and spent minutes tightening the belt and it sounded great.

Spending Sunday tinkering on a few things on the boat that I just can't do when she is in the water. Maybe I wil taker her out for another Southound cruise later in the day, but other than that all is great with the boat.

[Chass]

Nice to find out it was only a belt!

My squeek turned out to be the drive plate on the flywheel. It was just old and loose and squeeked a little when at idle.

Chass
ct