$330 to pull drive & nothing wrong???

[FilthyHaBIT]

3 hours labor at $110 per hour to pull my Bravo XR and take only the top half apart. We are looking to find the culprit for a obviuos rattling clacking sound when boat is at idle. You gotta get down near the drive to hear it though. Everything looks like new.....gimble, bearings, u joint and gear teeth. The mechanics working on it have heard it and put the stethascope to it and said it was a gimble startin to go. Boat has no more than 100 hours on it. Drive oil was a little low and looked burnt to them. They said that might cause sound. I replace drive oil with Redline Heavy shockproof gear oil......still clacking and rattling but I must say it shifts much SMOOTHER than with what ever the factory fill was. I bought the Redline oil at the raceshop for $37 so the total job has cost about $370 and I still don't know if the drive is comprimized. Does anyone else have a noisy XR at idle??? Could it be something in the motor that is echoing out the top o the drive??? Thank in advance for info....:idea:

[Viper_Mike]

My 28 Daytona with twin XR's has a bad rattle at idle since new. After alot of checking and worry I am pretty sure it is the metal flappers in the exhaust ends. I changed to Rex marine mufflers with the same flappers and still have the noise only at idle.
Mike.

[acatitude]

If im not mistaken the gimble gets greased from a zerk fitting on the side of i think its the gimble housing.. make sure your u joint is greased also, but im sure they checked that. good luck. hell if the drive was off a gimble bearing is only 100 bucks and right there. just change the damn thing and hope..

[2forcefull]

Ive seen where the yoke is going bad, not the ujoint but the part it goes in.
merc made the ujoints super heavyduty with huge needle bearings, now the week link is the yoke, it starts getting clearence that makes it click

[welk2party]

If it is making that sound only out of the water, then it is the exhaust flappers more than likely. Mine are loud as hell when out of the water.

[FilthyHaBIT]

If it is making that sound only out of the water, then it is the exhaust flappers more than likely. Mine are loud as hell when out of the water.
By exhaust flappers Im guessing you mean the plastic flaps over the exhaust ports???? I have no flappers...the boat has the exhaust ported out the sides so I can really hear the drive with no exhaust to drown it out..

[Viper_Mike]

My original exhaust ends had a rubber flapper on the outside and a metal flapper inside the pipe. The new mufflers only have the metal flapper inside the pipe. It does have a rubber edging on it, but at idle it rattles open and closed. Just a little rpm and it's quiet.
Does your sound change going in or out of gear?
Does it change with engine rpm?

[TIMINATOR]

Grease the spline in the coupler(the newer ones have grease zerks), see if the noise goes away or changes. Also, the u-joints can cause the noise. TIMINATOR

[FilthyHaBIT]

My original exhaust ends had a rubber flapper on the outside and a metal flapper inside the pipe. The new mufflers only have the metal flapper inside the pipe. It does have a rubber edging on it, but at idle it rattles open and closed. Just a little rpm and it's quiet.
Does your sound change going in or out of gear?
Does it change with engine rpm?
Sound doesn't change going into gear but it does vanish when we give it so me throttle...it's looking more and more like it may just be a noisy XR or that yolk has some play. I'd expect the mechanics would of checked that but I really don't know about the guy I took it to. I'm glad I was there when he was adding the redline oil to the drive because I actually watched him climb into the motor compartment and pour REdline gear oil into my POWERSTEERING resivore. I had to show him where the drive oil container was....behind the motor on a 525. He felt like an ass and had to pump out and refill the powersteering. WOW

[DCBob]

Ive seen where the yoke is going bad, not the ujoint but the part it goes in.
merc made the ujoints super heavyduty with huge needle bearings, now the week link is the yoke, it starts getting clearence that makes it click
Yep...what he said :idea:

[TCHB]

1.exaust flappers ( sound can travel through the drive)

[Pussywhippled]

Let me get this straight...
You had some work done on your boat and it was $370.00.
Whether it fixed the problem or not consider yourself lucky that someone even looked at it this time of year for $370.00.
Most people wont get off their ass now a days for that kind of money.
It's a boat right?
Anytime I have anything done it's a $1000.00 minimum, I just plan for that and if it's lower well then I got the "deal of the day"...

[cfm]

I'd expect the mechanics would of checked that but I really don't know about the guy I took it to. I'm glad I was there when he was adding the redline oil to the drive because I actually watched him climb into the motor compartment and pour REdline gear oil into my POWERSTEERING resivore. I had to show him where the drive oil container was....behind the motor on a 525. He felt like an ass and had to pump out and refill the powersteering. WOW
This is what you are paying $100 an hr for ? Are you serious ? And you expect him to find an odd noise ?
You wouldn't happen to have a factory Y pipe still in use would you ? I know...rare on a 525, but I've heard of a few with silent choice or quick'n quiet. The Y pipes have a flapper (noisy too) down at the transom assembly.
Either way, if the dude doesn't know where to fill your drive reservoir he definately doesn't know how to diagnose an XR drive noise.

[Beer-30]

Mine had a nasty rattle at idle. In gear, out of gear, it would change but was there with both. I had him knock off an extra $500 in case it was the drive.
After purchase, I reached in and flipped one of the flappers around. It made a similar noise. It has the rubber flappers on the end, so I just took a long chisel and knocked the metal ones out. Problem solved.
It did sound like the drive, initially.

[2forcefull]

Mine had a nasty rattle at idle. In gear, out of gear, it would change but was there with both. I had him knock off an extra $500 in case it was the drive.
After purchase, I reached in and flipped one of the flappers around. It made a similar noise. It has the rubber flappers on the end, so I just took a long chisel and knocked the metal ones out. Problem solved.
It did sound like the drive, initially.
so did you send back the 500. in cash or wire transfer?

[BDMar]

An XR WILL NOT make a "rattling clacking" noise when assembled properly. They are more noisy than a standard Bravo I, but not rattling or clacking. Also a drive should never be shifted into gear on the trailer with the prop on. Does it make the noise when it is in the water and there is a load against the prop? Does it make the noise on the trailer without the prop on?
My first guess was also internal exhaust flappers. If it's not, then take it to a ceritified Mercruiser shop and let them find the problem.

[Beer-30]

so did you send back the 500. in cash or wire transfer?
Um. No. :D

[FilthyHaBIT]

An XR WILL NOT make a "rattling clacking" noise when assembled properly. They are more noisy than a standard Bravo I, but not rattling or clacking. Also a drive should never be shifted into gear on the trailer with the prop on. Does it make the noise when it is in the water and there is a load against the prop? Does it make the noise on the trailer without the prop on?
My first guess was also internal exhaust flappers. If it's not, then take it to a ceritified Mercruiser shop and let them find the problem.
The boat is always run in the water....Maybe trailered once a year therefore I'm limited to Marine shops located on the lake. No exhaust flappers.....boat has two gatlin mufflers with exhaust ported out the SIDES of the hull. That makes it much quieter down buy the drive so you can really tell where the sound is comin from .It does make noise in the water with a load but seems to go away when engine hits around 1500rpm..

[cam-shaft]

The rattling you are hearing sounds like the shifting fork from the clutch assembly. This is because there is no load on the gears and is completly normal on the trailer. If you rev the engine and touch the side of the top box you can feel the rattle. Best check is look at magnet on drive vent plug. Thanks, Cam-shaft.