Clicking noise in Alpha I outdrive

[Begester]

I was coming home last weekend and I bottomed out and dragged my prop across some mud in a shallow spot in the lake. The impact put a .5 inch gash in the side of my aluminum prop, which I was planning on replacing anyways. When I got the boat back on the trailer, I was looking at the prop and when I spin it around, I hear a clicking noise that I didn?t hear before. It doesn?t sound like its coming from deep down in the drive, and I wasn?t going very fast when I hit bottom, but I have no idea what this could be. I heard before that some outdrives make a clicking noise when they spin, but I never noticed that before on mine. I had it out again last night and it runs like a champ, no noticeable power loss (even with the gash in the prop) and everything sounds great.

It?s an aluminum prop on an Alpha I outdrive on an older Sundancer.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what this could be or what I should look for?

 

[Splat]

Re: Clicking noise in Alpha I outdrive

Yea your boat is in gear when you tried to spin the prop.

It's a bypass coupler. That way when you get off the throttle and the boat is slowing down, it allows the prop to continue to spin at the same speed as the water flowing over it. This alleviates excess stress on the lower end.

If tyou leave your boat in gear with the engine off and get blown hard or use a trolling motor you'll actually hear the coupler clicking as the prop is spinning.

Make sure the boat is in neutral and try to spin it again, the click should be gone.

Bill