[Txtruckerpaul]

Hi all. Had my Talari on the lake yesterday. When I got home and had the muffs on it to flush the motor out, I noticed a very light whirring noise coming from the top of the lower unit. Sounded like it was coming from right below the top cover where the driveshaft goes in. It's not loud and doesn't have any ticking or clunking noise. Is that normal? Boat ran great all day long


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[Hudson River Steve]

I assume gear lube is at proper level in the reservoir. Try running on the muffs again, while running shoot some grease into the gimbal bearing zerk fitting. If you hear a noticeable change your bearing might be on its way out.

[Txtruckerpaul]

Thanks Steve,
Oil level is correct and I shot some grease in the gimbal zerk. Is a little, and I mean just a little, noise normal?

[Hudson River Steve]

Between all the gears, bearings, u-joints etc in that area there is bound to be a small amount of noise. It's tough to diagnose without being there. Do you hear anything when on the water, specifically when you are turning hard?

[Txtruckerpaul]

No sir, don't hear anything while its in the water. no clicking noises or anything in hard turns either. I'll agree, there's bound to be a little noise with all those moving parts. I've just never noticed it before, but I did have my head down there pretty close to the lower unit when I was greasing the gimbal bearing while it was idling with the muffs on. The only area I heard any noise from was from the very top on the outdrive, where the input shaft ends and is geared to the vertical shaft. Maybe I'm being overly cautious?

[blockp]

My bravo 3 (first one I've owned) is definitely louder than any of the alpha's or even {cough} cobra's I've owned in the past. First time I noticed that noise, I started looking at prices of upper gear sets and rebuilding the drive. Same thing as you, sound is right at the upper cap area, I only notice it on the trailer, nice and quiet in the water. No noise when turning or trimming up.

I started by changing the gear oil... it was clean with no metal or water intrusion. Then decided to run it till it blew or started getting worse. 3 years later, it still sounds the exact same. Since then, I've talked to a handful of bravo 3 owners that have said it's normal and theirs sounds the same.

[Txtruckerpaul]

thanks for the input, blockp. Maybe I'm just being paranoid about blowing the unit up and having to break the bank to buy a new lower unit. I've seen an exploded view diagram of the bravo 3 and with that many moving parts, there's bound to be a little noise coming from the unit. I'll just stop worrying about it and enjoy leaving bayliners in my wake, lol