CV joint gone bad?

[thegoodlife]

Little back ground first. I picked up a four winns horizon 240 at the beginning of last year. It is an 03 5.7 DP with about 300-400 hrs salt water on it. Everything went great last year and I winterized the boat with some of the helpful checklists found here on iboats. I did pull the drive off and inspect everything. There was a very slight amount of surface rust on the joints but nothing bad. The moved smooth with no binding or rough patches. The boot was starting to crack but I don't believe water had got in yet as it was dry and not full of rust when I opened things up. I did replace the boot with a fresh one. Well we took the boat out today for the first trip and everything was going well. There is about a 15 min no wake zone out of the harbor and everything was good. I started to power up onto plane and then all of a sudden it sounded like a bearing went. Bit of a growling noise that could be heard resonating through the boat. I throttled down and we inspected the drive to make sure we didnt get caught up in anything and then turned around an headed back in. The drive angle and how far the wheel was turned did seem to have an affect on the noise level. But in neutral it seemed to go away.

Now my first thought is the cv joint but I believe the shaft still spins in neutral correct?? Maybe without a load on it there isn't much noise made? Do these joints just go that quickly? I have quadruple checked the outdrive oil is to the correct level. and nothing is loose. I plan to pull the outdrive off to inspect it this week, but just trying to be a little prepared for what I might find. I would think if the cv joints were bad you would be able to feel it when inspecting them.


What is the likely hood it is a bearing in the drive itself? I hope slim...

 

[thegoodlife]

Re: CV joint gone bad?

So I picked up a scope to help see if I could pin point where the noise was coming from. Unfortunately no luck, but now I did notice that the sound was noticeable even in neutral. It was louder in gear and when the trim was adjusted or the wheel was turned. I pulled the drive off and the U joints were still in great shape. There is some amounts of surface rust on them but they move very nice in all directions with no play. I think the culprit is the gimbal bearing as it was pretty dry (guess I missed lubing that during my winterization). I was able to spin it very very easy with my finger tips. Then I added some grease and it now takes some effort to spin. I think it was really dry... There is no side to side or up and down play in the bearing and only a very small amount of in and out play on the inner race (read a few .001 ish?). I assume this is normal though? It feels fairly smooth spinning it but the noise is amplified by the hull of the boat so it does sound kind of loud. I am likely going to try and replace the bearing as the local dealer has the part for 70 bucks and is willing to let me just borrow the tools required.

 

[Jammer864]

Re: CV joint gone bad?

Gimbal bearing. Also the driveshaft continously turns at the u-joints. The neutral happens inside the drive. Thats one reason to never raise the drive up into the trailer position with the engine running as the angle is very hard on the joints while running. Sounds like a good dealer. hes a keeper.

 

[thegoodlife]

Re: CV joint gone bad?

Thanks for the reply Jammer! After picking up the new bearing last night I am going to say it is 99% that it was the gimbal bearing. I was able to pull the old one and get the new one in without a problem. The alignment part was less fun as it is really subjective.. All the grease in there doesn't help either as it seems to create a suction on the end of the shaft as you go to pull it out. To me the alignment tool seemed to go in and out fairly easy with two fingers and a little pressure. I was not able to fire the boat off to test as it was about midnight and I don't think my neighbors would have enjoyed.

The area past the gimbal seal (between the bearing and the back of the motor) is the engine coupler right? How packed with grease should it be? I ask because I find it interesting that there is the seal on the shaft and the double o-rings on the shaft as well. Is this more so to keep grease in the coupler or backup if the bellows fails and water gets in? Any thing special that should be being done in that area?

Hell of a dealer right? And its She believe it or not. They didn't have the puller on hand but I was able to get a 3 jaw slide hammer from autozone that worked out pretty good. I found a few good tricks for using it in this application. I left my bellows and everything else in place so that limited the room I had to work in. The puller has a cone shape that engages the back of the jaws to push them outward allowing you to grab the back of the bearing. I found by using a jam nut against the jaw I only had to hold onto the cone and rotate the slide to expand the jaws. It is a lot easier than trying to jam two hands inside the bellows to hold the jaw still while tightening the cone. The other trick was the old shaft o-rings are the prefect size to slide onto the jaws and hold them together while you insert them through the bearing. Again it saves you from trying to jam your hand down the bellows and hold them from flopping around while you get the jaw in place. About a dozen good hits and it was out!

 

[Jammer864]

Re: CV joint gone bad?

Yes, that area between the engine and the bearing is the coupler. It shouldnt be packed with grease. The splines should have a small amount of moly grease on them but more like a thin film rather than coated in it, if that makes any sense. Ive been told those 2 o-rings on the shaft are not to seal anything but to prevent rattle if I remember right. The o-rings get no grease, just a light touch of oil.

 

[thegoodlife]

Re: CV joint gone bad?

Just to confirm and wrap up for anyone reading this in the future, it was the gimbal bearing. Had the boat out on the water again this past weekend and everything seems to be good! Very interesting for the bearing to go from nice and quite to a bunch of noise all at once and not actually have a broken roller or anything.

Thanks Jammer, that makes more sense. I could not figure out what those o-rings were sealing out.