Hi guys, I have a little problem I was hoping someone might be able to solve for me.
I took my lovely better half on a leisurely cruise up a river the other day. We drove over a "muddy sand bank". The boat didnt actually stop it just slowed down a bit - we were only doing 5 knots!! - We didnt hit anything hard at all, we just slowed down.
We checked the river and couldnt see the depth as the water was a bit murky, so we went a little further up, and it happened again, so we turned around and slowly headed back out to the river mouth and into the estuary.
Once we were at the open water speed area we sped up to about 40kts.
We noticed that the boat was vibrating a bit and then
about 3 - 4 minutes later the overheating alarm went off. We of course stopped immediately and checked everything.
The temp gauge was showing 80+ degs, we called the service manager where
we get the boat serviced and he said we may have picked up some mud into the water pump and it wasnt getting enough water through to the motor to sufficiently cool it down at the speed we were doing.
So we headed back to the launching ramp at a pathetic 5 kts for about 1 hour.
The temp gauge never went over 75 degs, but we did noticed a sort of grinding noise and vibration that wasnt there before we headed out on our day trip.
We took the boat into the workshop on the way home for them to check over and repair - 1 week and $1590 later they reckon they had fixed it. The impeller was a "little bit" worn - I couldn't bloody see where it was worn, so that was replaced, the manifold heads were taken off and the water system completely cleaned of "burnt on" mud.
They took it out for 2 test runs and even though being told of the vibration problem, they gave it back to me saying it was running well.
We took it for a run a few days later, the motor was running well no problems there but the grinding noise and the vibration was still there.
It seems to vary in degrees as to which position the leg is in. In the fully down postion it is a bit different to say 1/2 way up.
The grinding sort of noise is there as well which is worrying also. It wasnt there before we hit these little sand bars.
The boat still runs great so the motor is doing its thing, the prop looks good - I havent put on another one to see if that fixes things at all.
So if anyone can lend there expert hands to this I would be truly greatfull.
I intend to get the boat back to the repairer and have him look at whatever could
be causing this, so armed with a bit of info would be really helpful.
It is an Alpha one leg with a 4 blade stainless steel prop attached.
There is no noticably movement in the prop (apart from around and around
).
And for this sort of money, I want the bloody thing running perfectly.
Vibration from Outdrive?
