vibration, growl...

[hystat]

I put a 116 upper on my Gen II V6 1.8? ratio last fall before storing the boat and noticed a bit of a growl, more pronounced after a longish run. Seems to almost disappear in neutral, noticeable at idle in gear and at slow plane.
Ran about 10 hours last fall completing break in.
Still there this spring - same symptoms. Can't really detect at WOT due to other noise/ wind etc.

The front end of the upper felt hot to me when running back and feeling it just off plane. I added a drive shower just because I had one here.
Changed gear lube - looks fine. some "fur" on lower magnet - nothing serious considering break in of upper.

Last week I changed the gimbal bearing and checked the alignment. Alignment was off a touch, now perfect. Old gimbal bearing felt smooth, but I put a new one in anyway.
I noticed the paint crispy and flaky on the "nose" of the upper just behind the foam seal - heat?

First run- fairly silent. Second outing - there's the growl on slow cruise. it's back.

I took the lid off the upper expecting to find an issue, but gears and top bearing look great. I can, wobble the vertical shaft a fair bit, but figure this is normal without the support of the top cover bearing.

So my options now -
1. tear into the lower - although propshaft turns smooth as silk and lube always clear.

2. ignore it...

I was wondering if it's just new, tight U joints? and the "working" around of the driveshaft during drive removal might have been why the vibration went away temporarily.

Any suggestions how to proceed? About 25 hours on the upper now.

[admin]

That is strange that the noise went away. Considering your just seeing fuzz on the magnet, I doubt there is anything going on internally. The crispy paint is most likely just paint that didn't stick to the machined surface, so i don't think that is anything to worry about it. I would just keep running it and see if anything changes. You can always send it in after the season for us to take a look if it still concerns you.

Tech Support

[hystat]

I actually just ordered a lower, that way my whole drive will have a couple years more warr. I'll swap the lower, then if it still growls, I'll send the upper back in the box.

[hystat]

new lower on, noise and vibration almost totally gone so I guess it was the lower. Still some rattle/groan in sharp turns at no wake speed- brand new gimbal bearing so it has to be u-joints. They felt and looked fine so I'm not going to get too excited about it. I am told some just do that. Going boating.

[hystat]

about 25 hours run-time later, the noise got much worse. pulled the drive today and inspected gimbal bearing - gimbal is smooth as silk. I just filled out a warranty request.
That paint is definitely heat cracked - not peeling - it's well stuck.

[hystat]

Quick turnaround on the repair. Drive back on, boat WAY quieter now. I guess that upper wasn't right from the get-go.
I'm glad I didn't scrap the old lower I replaced after the new upper went on and the drive was still noisey. the old lower is probably fine. I'll look for a used upper and put together a spare drive.

working now anyways...repair still ran me the part of $300 with shipping both ways and new lube. That'll be my last SEI part I think unless a Canadian shipping warranty is offered in the future. That's pricey and frankly makes little or no sense that you'll ship to a town in NY an hour from me, but charge 100% ship costs to Canada. However, I understood the policy going in.