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I suspect the driveshaft is no longer turning and am trying to find out what might cause it. Here are more details...
There seemed to be a tapping sound coming from the engine. I noticed this after I had trouble starting after sitting for a week. The engine was cranking ok. But on one turn of the key it cranked over a little and locked up. As if it seized. But I could turn the flywheel counter clockwise to get it back off that stroke. Then turned the key and it cranked past that spot and started. I took it out and seemed to be running fine. Thought I heard a slight tapping but thought it could be exhaust noise. Several days later I took the boat out. Started fine. Seemed to be a little hard shifting into reverse. No noise. Just needed more muscle. Ran around for a couple hours then the tapping started getting more and more noticeable till I lost propulsion and the engine just revved. It's not a spun prop because I'm getting zero turn on the prop shaft. It is shifting into and out of gear because when in gear the prop cannot be turned by hand (or boat book). When out of gear it spins freely as it should. I'm guessing something went wrong up in the power head where the driveshaft is turned. But my manual doesn't give me an exploded view of this. I'm handy but don't plan on fixing this myself. But I'd like to get an idea of what it could be to think about whether it's worth fixing. And so I can listen intelligently to the mechanic when I bring it.
I should provide a little other background. A month or so ago I had an unrelated shifting problem. The throttle got hung up and I couldnt get the throttle to neutral. I forced back on it and got it out of forward but it went right to reverse. There didn't seem to be any damage till I tried to get on plane later. They the prop hub spun. I put on a spare and ran around fine for a month till the other one was fixed. However I'm thinking this could have caused something that eventually caused this now catastrophic failure of the drive mechanism.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice.
Bill Smith
There seemed to be a tapping sound coming from the engine. I noticed this after I had trouble starting after sitting for a week. The engine was cranking ok. But on one turn of the key it cranked over a little and locked up. As if it seized. But I could turn the flywheel counter clockwise to get it back off that stroke. Then turned the key and it cranked past that spot and started. I took it out and seemed to be running fine. Thought I heard a slight tapping but thought it could be exhaust noise. Several days later I took the boat out. Started fine. Seemed to be a little hard shifting into reverse. No noise. Just needed more muscle. Ran around for a couple hours then the tapping started getting more and more noticeable till I lost propulsion and the engine just revved. It's not a spun prop because I'm getting zero turn on the prop shaft. It is shifting into and out of gear because when in gear the prop cannot be turned by hand (or boat book). When out of gear it spins freely as it should. I'm guessing something went wrong up in the power head where the driveshaft is turned. But my manual doesn't give me an exploded view of this. I'm handy but don't plan on fixing this myself. But I'd like to get an idea of what it could be to think about whether it's worth fixing. And so I can listen intelligently to the mechanic when I bring it.
I should provide a little other background. A month or so ago I had an unrelated shifting problem. The throttle got hung up and I couldnt get the throttle to neutral. I forced back on it and got it out of forward but it went right to reverse. There didn't seem to be any damage till I tried to get on plane later. They the prop hub spun. I put on a spare and ran around fine for a month till the other one was fixed. However I'm thinking this could have caused something that eventually caused this now catastrophic failure of the drive mechanism.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice.
Bill Smith
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