Question

[sschifer]

I was wondering if anybody has had a engine coupler go out and if you did what were the symptoms.

 

[Problem Child]

There can be several sympoms that I have seen. A vibration even when your u joint is good. Some have a rattling noise almost like the motor knocking. Rubber shreds laying around under the drive. What are your symptoms.

 

[miller]

Your engine will run, you should be able to see the coupler spinning with the engine but the input shaft going into the coupler wont be spinning. Probably have metal shavings around the area. If thats what you have, then you have to figure out what wrecked the coupler. Locked up outdrive...or misaligned engine.

 

[Jimway]

Seen a couple of different types of failures back down in there, caused by misalignment and degradation of hull/mounts also causing misalignment. If the rubber coupling fails you will get extra rpms but no forward progress of vessel. Spline damage will some times hold at low rpm but make a terrible grinding noise when you give it some throttle, sometimes it feels like the prop is hitting bottom with not much grinding noise at all. Worked on one that had the triangular plate that broke across one side. It vibrated pretty aggressively at mid rpms and made a noise like a sticky lifter at idle. To me, if its the bearing on the shaft, I feel a rumble on turns, not as pronounced as a bad u-joint.

 

[sschifer]

I have a bad coupler. Jason at kunkels called and said it is bad. My symptoms were when in gear the outdrive sounded like it was not fully in gear. I personally thought it was my shift cable needing adjusted. Oh well....the boat is a 86 and that is the original coupler.

 

[CheckmateFever]

Got me wondering now since mines an 86 too. I get a slight rumble/vibration when steering. It's not too bad, it's done it for years and i've have been told that's pretty much normal and that the coupler/u-joints are fine by the marina after they've checked it out. I have had the gimbal bearing go a couple of times tho! Hope to see you up to Keuka this Summer man!

 

[PayCheck]

Our 1974 Alpha still has the original triangular plate coupler and it's clean - no rubber pieces yet I expected it to go a long time ago as I went through many lowers in the early years. And found a seized transom bearing when replacing the drive 7 years ago but the coupler looks great.