Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

I bought a 1995 Barchetta 182 with the 4.3L and Alpha 1 this spring. The boat has been awesome all summer until this last weekend. There were 4 of us cruising across the lake when I started to pick up a vibration. I was running around 30-35 mph and around 3800 rpm. I didn’t hit anything and was in 25-30 feet of water. I slowed down a little and it got worse. I trimmed the outdrive down and the vibration went away. I slowly gave it more throttle and was fine until I trimmed up and the vibration got worse. So I slowed down again and trimmed the out drive back down. We were able to run around 25 mph, trimmed almost all the way down, back to the dock and loaded up. The vibration didn’t seem to change any while turning. My first thought is gimbal bearing but before I order parts and pull the outdrive off I thought I would ask if anyone else has ran into this problem.

Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

Does it vibrate only when turning or both?

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Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

Both, if it is trimmed up.

Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

Could be a loose u joint. You will need to pull the drive to inspect both the u joints and the gimbal bearing.

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Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

I pulled the outdrive off tonight and everything looks good. The u-joints are tight and the gimbal bearing is smooth. I'm not sure where to look next.

Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

Going through a similar situation. Had vibration mainly turning. U joint and bearing are fine. He moved to power steering, uggg b.o.a.t.

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Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

I was reading another guy had a similar problem. His vibration ended up being a misfire under load. He ended up replacing the cap, rotor, plug wires and spark plugs to take care of it. That's probably going to be the next place I look.

Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

While you have the outdrive off closely inspect your coupler for wear on the splines and for evidence of the metal splines slipping. BTW, were the driveshaft splines well greased?

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Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

The splines were greased well. I'll look again tonight but the splines look good on the drive shaft and in the coupler.

Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

The splines in the coupler and on the shaft look good.

Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

My boat vibrates and is slow as hell when the engine is all the way down. But if you trim it up it lessons the vibration and becomes faster. You can feel it change from plowing the water to riding over it. But if you raise it to high, it starts bouncing up and down. And may vibrate. It probably Is the gimbal bering. I had a similar issue on my old Sea-Ray a few years ago. I believe the issue was the gimbal bearing. But I'm not certain.

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Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

Folks, a tiny bit of play in either u-joint is as good as one that is sloppy loose. There can not be any movement, popping, in a u-joint. They are basically a zero clearance fitting. Take a pry bar and try to get the cross to move inside the cup. Zero play.
Have you checked the prop output shaft for any up and down play? There is some in and out but there should be ZERO up and down.
I'm voting with the fella that said engine misfiring though. Can you hear an engine tone change when it starts shaking?

Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

The tone changed but I didn't keep playing with it because I didn't want to damage anything.

Re: Vibration when outdrive trimmed up
 

I reinstalled the outdrive and replaced the cap, rotor, plugs and wires. I took it out this last weekend and everything worked great. No vibration at all.