www.iFourWinns.com

The DPS drive on my 2004 boat has from new always seemed noisy compared to the one on my previous 1999 boat, I put it down initially to the ESP and the "straight through" exhaust hose. However, the tail end of last year it started to have mechanical wear noises.

With the outdrive off the boat here is some slop when the input shaft is rotated; not the U/Js, but in the upper unit. I can move the input shaft some 5 degrees before the gears engage.

When I take it out of gear now, there is some "chattering"" noise for up to about 5 seconds.

The oil has been changed yearly, never any water in the unit I suspect a bearing and clutch problem. Anyone have any ideas?

If there was always more noise in the 04 vs the 99 and you are feeling slop in the gears now, I wonder if the initial set up of the gears (backlash) was not as good and now there may be too much backlash and that's what you are hearing. Have you ever seen any wear particles on the drain plug when you drain the gear oil? Not just a bit of fuzz but bigger pieces.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Lou,

The initial backlash set up is what I suspect as well; is this 5 degree or so slop abnormal ?

I've never seen any particles in the oil; it seems to always have come out as clean as when it went in, maybe a little darker !

Never having had a Volvo I can't say but you could put the question out there for other members with Volvos. On the dog clutch Cobra there is no slop to speak of when I shift the drive in gear with it off the boat. I checked this out thoroughly when I set up the shift cable this spring.
How many hours are on the unit?

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

It's got less than 200 hours on it. The slop I mentioned is when the input shaft is turned side to side by hand; I imagine this doesn't happen once the engine is running, as the input shaft gear will be in permanent turning and in so contact to the vertical shaft gear.

I bet you could find the spec for the backlash in the shop manual, not sure how you would actually measure it but it might be possible if you take off the top cover and use a dial indicator.....

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

All you can see if the top cover is removed is the bearing ( plus a hole that the dipstick goes into ). I do have a VP manual, I did read it pretty thoroughly some 12 years ago! From memory, much of the backlash settings were done on the basis of wear patterns on the gear teeth. Realistically, unless it goes "bang" it'll be the Autumn before I can strip it down; not looking forward to that !

I'd like to extend my repair capabilities with drive units beyond what I've done till now but once you get into gear set ups its beyond what I think I could do a good job of myself. The most I have done besides the R+R each season and the impeller (in the drive on the Cobra) is to split the upper and lower drive housings to clean barnacles out of the water intakes. I'd love to be able to do that and I've considered taking some adult ed classes to learn how. Maybe when I retire, LOL....

_________________
88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II