Few issues with Bravo3 Drive

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agallant80

Commander
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
2,328
Hello all.

I have posted a few threads on the individual issues but this weekend I had all of the issues with my bravo3 drive and figured that I would lump all of the issues in to the same thread, perhaps they are related. With that said this is a pretty much new setup. I bought the boat in Feb of this year and have about 25-30 hours on it. Also, I know a few of you will think "just take it back to the dealer" The dealer I bought it from is 300 miles away I don't want to spend a weekend and two tanks of gass to drop it off and another weekend and two tanks of gas to pick it up to find out they missed somyething. I don't want to lose my boat for how ever long it will take another Mercruiser dealer to look at it, I am sure they are busy servicing boats that were sold at their dealer. I am posing because I am interested in learning more and figuring it out on my own with help from the iboats community of course :)

Issue #1:
Drive sounds like it is grinding when turning, if going strait it does not make any grinding noise, I am going to pull the drive Tuesday night and look at the u-joints, gimble, alignment etc. Is there anything else that I should keep an eye out for?

Issue #2:
The drive will shift between netural, forward, and reverse fine but when I run it for an extended time say an hour or so It will do a few funny things. Some times the shift lever will get stuck in forward and I will have to juggle it around to get it to go in to netural. The other issues is sometimes when I put it in to gear it does not engage. The motor will rev up and some times it will slam in to gear after the motor reves up and some times I have to put it in to netural then forward to get it to engage. I am going to look at the shift cable ajustment but don't know if I should be looking for anything else.

Issue#3
There seams to be a ticking noise coming from the rear of the motor. With the motor running I was listening for it, thought it may have been valve noise but when I investigated further it was coming from the rear of the motor. Any thoughts on this one? The noise was pretty bad, it reminded me of my Diesel truck. Perhaps related to ussie #1

Thanks for your help guys.
 
tpenfield

tpenfield

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Staff member
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Jul 18, 2011
Messages
18,083
Re: Few issues with Bravo3 Drive

Since you had received no responses yet, I will offer my comments.

#1 does sound like u-joints . . . but it may be a matter of expectations versus a problem.. You will tend to get a noise from the u-joints if you apply power with the outdrive turned fairly sharply or in a raised position.

#2 sounds like shift cable adjustment.

#3 maybe a video of the noise will help. I did have a gimbal bearing that made a 'slapping' sound; you could definitely hear it from the transom area. . . . the old style bearings were good in this regard, as you could shoot grease into them and listen for the change in noise, etc. With your new engine, it probably has the 'perma-lube' style of bearings.

Probably the thing to do is check the outdrive /engine alignment as well as the shift linkage adjustment, then go from there.
 
OllieC

OllieC

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
533
Re: Few issues with Bravo3 Drive

I'm not saying that there isn't anything wrong with your outdrive, but I had a similar experience last year during WOT. I wasn't used to the sound of counter rotating props as well as the exhaust going through them. I thought it was grinding Ujoints or was the gimbal bearing. I had the Mercruiser outfit pull the drive, replace the gaskets and review. They said everything looked like new.
 
A

agallant80

Commander
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
2,328
Re: Few issues with Bravo3 Drive

I spokw with the dealer I bought it from and they said its definatilly not normal and there is somthing majorly wrong with the drive with the shifting issue and noise from the coupler (it sounds like a diesel). They are a great family dealer. They helped me make arangments with a dealer down here to look at it, I am going to give that a try. Dropping it off Saturday morning. I will update the thread with what is discovered so if anyone else has these issues they can look in to it. From what I told them they think it may be a bad coupler and a bad clutch. More ripping in to the drive then I want to do at this point in time.
 
S

Slip Away

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Joined
May 11, 2010
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Re: Few issues with Bravo3 Drive

I commend you on how well you are approaching this. If these symptoms showed up on my 46 hr. boat, I would be livid. Especially since you did not run aground or hit anything. Warranty or not, it's the downtime from boating that would be a tough one. Good Luck.
 
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agallant80

Commander
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
2,328
Re: Few issues with Bravo3 Drive

Slip Away said:
I commend you on how well you are approaching this. If these symptoms showed up on my 46 hr. boat, I would be livid. Especially since you did not run aground or hit anything. Warranty or not, it's the downtime from boating that would be a tough one. Good Luck.
Click to expand...

Looking at it like this always helps me keep my cool when these things happen
First world problem "my new boat broke"
Third wolrld problem "I cant find clean drinking water and half my family died from drinking contaminated puddle water."

Everyone on this site even the person whos boat is 60 years old and has rotten strinngers is lucky to be able to focus on a boat rather than what some other people in the world have to deal with.
 
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