Noisy UJoints SEI Alpha Gen2

[Howard Sterndrive]

My Drive sounds like a hunk of junk. It was noisy since new (SEI). It sounds like a bad gimbal bearing but I have replaced gimbal brg twice with no change.
The paint was all flaking and cracking around the bearing are of the upper so I assumed I had a bearing issue (you can see the paint in the vid) It gets quite hot still.
Sent the upper back for warranty. SEI says nothing found. I suspect the U joints are tight or something. Any ideas? Check out my Video if you have a moment please. You can hear clacking when i steer it to the left. On plane the noise is more pronounced and resonates through the hull. Is there a way to loosen up U joints? I guess time, but it really sounds horrid. My last trip out, I turned around expecting drive was failing. I took the lid off the upper and the gears look fine. I see on the warranty return they may have filed the gear edges in an attempt to quiet the gears.I think it's u joints at this point. And they really kick at the drive. Gotta be hard on the transom housing pins.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

The vid

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

btw. alignment is spot on. No alarming metal or anything in oil. I can see the edges of the rollers in the tapered roller bearing, but can't get my eyeballs in close enough to really see what shape the bearings are in. I suspect SEI replaced them and reshimmed/resealed the drive.
185HP V6 1992

 

[Bt Doctur]

I suspect a U joint cap may be the cause of the tapping. remove the drive and inspect the 4 caps to see if there all the same helght.
can you accurately measure the distance between 2 caps?

 

[Bondo]

I suspect a U joint cap may be the cause of the tapping. remove the drive and inspect the 4 caps to see if there all the same helght.
can you accurately measure the distance between 2 caps?

Ayuh,.... I can see that happenin',.... one needle laid over,....

 

[Rick Stephens]

Ayuh,.... I can see that happenin',.... one needle laid over,....

or even missing.

Was me, I'd replace them. Not a big job or $$.


Rick

 

[bspeth]

Your motor is not trimmed up past the limit,is it?

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

follow up - one cross was tight as a snare drum. Chinese parts. I reused the driveshaft off my old drive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Rn_XyUelQ

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,...... What'd ya find when ya got it apart,..??

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

The issue is that the bores in the center socket of the joint are misaligned. I thought maybe it had been dropped or bent, but looks like it was just made goofy, like they machined the 2 bores independently. They won some kind of fight to assemble it. The grease in the cups was black and smelled like a burnt up differential. But the needles were all where they were supposed to be.

Makes sense that it would get noisier with time. Heat was probably making it real tight. I hope it didn't beat the rear main bearing on my engine up too bad... or the coupler.

 

[Rick Stephens]

One can hope the coupler would have absorbed whatever vibration without damaging the engine, even though couplers ain't cheap either.

I had a noisy CV joint recently. To all appearances the caps, crosses and needles looked perfect and normal. But turning the steering near full travel, left or right, would make for a lot of noise and vibration. Replaced the crosses and away went the noise. I still have no clue why the old crosses were bad.

I also own an SEI unit I bought new. It never had any issues with the CV joint. Paint is another matter. If you look at it cross ways, paint chips will fly off. 20 mil paint looks nice when new, but I'd rather they didn't put it on so thick or figured a way to get better adhesion.

 

[Scott06]

Did SEI have any response to this obvious manufacturing defect? Would be nice if they gave you something for your time considering they(aka the experts) couldn't figure it out when you sent the upper back?

You'd like to be able to not second guess the integrity of the new parts you buy...

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

they quit answering emails, thus this thread and the videos. Buyer beware.
The product isn't absolutely terrible, and I'm not sure their customer service is that unique in this day and age. So many warranties sound great, but there aren't techs able to put the time into a proper diagnosis.

This is just part of being a consumer who is also technical. You're often going to find yourself more able and willing to get to the root cause of a problem than any vendor selling you parts. So buy used stuff and fix it up yourself and save a bundle because you're likely to end up doing that on new stuff too.

With the weight of the shaft on there, it wasn't super obvious how tight the joint was. They didn't charge for the repair and I knew going in that they don't cover Canadian shipping.

That's a dumb policy. They should charge the difference on top of shipping as far as the border, or charge one way. Canada is a huge market. But it's their business, they can run it how they want. I don't expect US businesses to have to offer anything to Canada or even sell their products here.

No serious sour grapes here - just info.