Alpha One Gen I Ratchet sound in neutral

[jc_davil]

Hello, I'm trying to see if I could get someone to give me some opinions. I have an Alpha One gen one outdrive and I noticed that when out of the water running with muffs and the gear in neutral. It makes a ratcheting noise and the prop kinda rotates a little. It gets even worst when I rev up. I barely notice it in the water (maybe because its submerged and i cant hear it)..?? The boat runs pretty good. Is this a common thing on these units? All the cables are brand new and adjusted to specs.
Thanks!!

 

[ktbarrentine]

This sounds normal to me... and can also depend on how much you have your drive trimmed while on muffs, since the clutch dogs in the lower drive can be affected by angle and gravity. Do you operate on muffs with drive trimmed as level as possible (recommended, since this is less wear and tear on the u-joints)?

Does you shifter operate normally out of the water? (I rarely shift into fwd or rev while engine running on muffs, but you should be able to in order to see how the clutch dogs are working before putting the boat in the water). I usually do static shifter checks out of the water... again, with drive trimmed level (for the gravity reason) and the engine off (key REMOVED), I shift to Fwd, rotate prop CCW to see if it locks, Then do the same after shifting to Rev, rotate the prop CW and make sure it "locks". Then back to neutral, to check for free-wheeling. Only thing not checked out of water is the proper operation of the shift interupt switch, but this is not part of the topic this time.

Also, are you following the recommendations of mercruiser service bulletin 99-09 while operating on muffs?

Hope this helps. Happy boating!

 

[jc_davil]

Thanks for your input. Actually I was trying with the outdrive in UP position. I will try with the outdrive leveled to see if it gets better. The shifting is just fine. I have actually taken it to the water and it seems to operate normally. I was just concerned about this noise while out of the water. I'm just getting familiar with these since is the first one I've owned. People have told me that they will last forever with the right maintenance and care but I have no Idea on the history of this one since it came with the boat. I pretty much did all maintenance like lube change, bellows, water pump, etc. I bought a rebuilt Merc 5.7 and I's still in the tuning phase. Last time I went to the water I started hearing this noise coming from the engine at around 3000rpm under load, like valve cluttering. Im thinking ignition timing or something of that nature. Other than that the boat runs beautiful.

 

[ktbarrentine]

Sounds good.... Just remember to NOT run on muffs with drive trimmed (way) UP (lots of people have really overstressed their u-joints doing it that way, especially if done if the full up-trailered position, and it makes a racket!). Some non-level trimming is ok, and operation in up position for short periods usually will not be bad (some have to do this in the water while navigating shallow areas). And advisable to follow the service bulletin instructions to avoid water injestion issues, especially w/ your new/rebuilt engine.

KB