thumpn1969
Recruit
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2015
- Messages
- 4
New to the forum. I have always been a Jet boat owner but for the last year have owned a 1996 vip valiant 4.3 lx mercruiser alpha 1 gen 2 I have done a few modifications on it. last year went off without a hitch, ran perfectly went from 45 mph to 51 mph with a 21 pitch 4 blade aluminum mercury spitfire prop. when I first bought it replaced all bellows and gimbal bearing, upgraded to a 4bbl carb and put thru hull exhaust on it, This year i decided to remove the thru hull exhaust and replace the engine coupler for maintenance . upon first fire up and running on muffs I noticed water in the oil after 10 min. shut it down and upon inspection found that the typical one piece manifold failure on the left side. I replaced with GLM aluminum pieces and the water went away. The following week I took it for a test spin. idled normally ran out fine until i left the no wake zone.. throttled up and it vibrated badly!!! scared the crap out of me! ... i backed off the throttle and returned to idle. put it in neutral and reved it.. still vibrated but not as bad. went back into gear and took off.. vibrated all the way to 3,000 rpm and then got much less barely noticeable! . I decided to return to the trailer and bring it home. I did notice that it was worse with the trim up higher and made a knocking noise. I had decided it is possibly something i missed on the permalube u joints...
brought it home and removed the drive. re checked the joints and they are flawless. keep in mind it is a 1996 but has less than 250 hours on it. i decided to have my wife start it while i looked up the gimbal and OMG the couple is wobbling everywhere ! I had purchased this coupler from Doug Russel marine on ebay. and Damn was that a mistake! They are no help and insisted it was something I had done! my alignment is perfect one finger in on the tool barely 2 fingers out.. The tool goes in as easy as that lady who loves the bar scene locally here!. They said it is a private label part.. layman terms means (Chinese junk ! ). So I removed the coupler and decided to do some measuring. it appears at the end of the coupler it is about 9 millimeter out from one direction to the other with it being about 3 mm out at the base its enough you can see it by visual looking at it straight on and by video its horrible looking. I can post videos and pics but im trying to resolve this has anyone else had this problem?? i ordered a mercruiser oe coupler and am installing this weekend. ONE OTHER THING I NOTICED ... Inside the oil fill extention is a milky substance . the oil is clean on the stick with no signs of water . when i removed the risers i can see water in the exhaust portion of the manifold. standing water at that. is this normal when not running and sitting for 45 min? the plugs look ok no signs of water washing. any advice would be helpful ty! as mentioned can send ics and vids.
brought it home and removed the drive. re checked the joints and they are flawless. keep in mind it is a 1996 but has less than 250 hours on it. i decided to have my wife start it while i looked up the gimbal and OMG the couple is wobbling everywhere ! I had purchased this coupler from Doug Russel marine on ebay. and Damn was that a mistake! They are no help and insisted it was something I had done! my alignment is perfect one finger in on the tool barely 2 fingers out.. The tool goes in as easy as that lady who loves the bar scene locally here!. They said it is a private label part.. layman terms means (Chinese junk ! ). So I removed the coupler and decided to do some measuring. it appears at the end of the coupler it is about 9 millimeter out from one direction to the other with it being about 3 mm out at the base its enough you can see it by visual looking at it straight on and by video its horrible looking. I can post videos and pics but im trying to resolve this has anyone else had this problem?? i ordered a mercruiser oe coupler and am installing this weekend. ONE OTHER THING I NOTICED ... Inside the oil fill extention is a milky substance . the oil is clean on the stick with no signs of water . when i removed the risers i can see water in the exhaust portion of the manifold. standing water at that. is this normal when not running and sitting for 45 min? the plugs look ok no signs of water washing. any advice would be helpful ty! as mentioned can send ics and vids.
