www.iFourWinns.com

I'm not sure what has happened to my precious '94 Freedom. We took her out about a month ago and had a wildly successful outing. This past Sunday I took the family out and had a text book launch. I got in the boat, hit the no wake line, throttled her, then loud screeching. I immediately cut power and performed a visual inspection- nothing smoking, nothing obvious. I fired her up again and realized the screech was metal on metal of sheared teeth. This is an OMC, the outdrive is the 1.85 gear ratio. Any idea what might have happened? She's off to the mechanic tomorrow but it could be weeks until I get their diagnosis.

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wakeskate and wakeboard with no boat?!-
http://www.phoenixwinch.com

1994 Freedom 170
OMC Cobra (by Volvo Penta) 3.0L

Blew the drive coupler, or lost the upper gears? Any maintenance on the drive unit recently? Usually you take a sample of the gear oil and see if there is a lot of metal in it. That would more or less suggest worn out gears in the drive unit. The signs of a blown coupler would be rubber dust around the rear of the engine, burning rubber smell, or obviously worn splines but that you'd only see after removing the drive and looking in the gimble housing.
Many don't realize you are supposed to remove the drive once a year, to inspect the bellows (for water leaking in) the gimble bearing, u joints and driveshaft splines. You are supposed to lube those splines and that helps the corresponding splines in the coupler to not wear out. You are also supposed to lube the gimble bearing and the u joints. The only way to lube the splines and u joints is to remove the drive, the gimble bearing can be lubed via the grease fitting on the side of the transom mount.

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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

Thank you, the engine was pulled and new transom seal installed fairly recently. That's about all I can say for now.

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wakeskate and wakeboard with no boat?!-
http://www.phoenixwinch.com

1994 Freedom 170
OMC Cobra (by Volvo Penta) 3.0L

OK if they pulled the engine, they had to re-align it so that the driveshaft does not push on the coupler in a way that would put unequal forces on it as the the engine/coupler and driveshaft spin together. The transom mount/gimble housing is solidly bolted to the transom. In effect the engine coupler has to be at the right angle to the driveshaft for it to run with a minimum of side to side force applied to it. So the front engine mounts can be adjusted up and down to get the coupler at the correct angle to accomplish this. Couplers can wear out but if the engine alignment is maintained (checked every time the drive is removed) and the driveshaft greased yearly they can last a very long time. The other thing that can happen to change engine alignment is the engine mounts can have rot in them and the engine can start sagging from the front. But they would have noticed that when they reinstalled it because the lag bolts would not have caught in the mounts and would have just spun, plus you can see the 'glass start to stress crack where the weight of the engine is resting on them....

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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

I had a similar incident last weekend where my u-joint blew took out the transom shield with it and cracked the pivot housing. I'm looking to replace everything in the link below except for the trim pump. Does anyone know of an assembly without the trim pump?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Volvo-Penta-SX- ... 60&vxp=mtr

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2004 Vista 298
Twin 5.7L Volvo Penta GXi-E

I would check http://www.crowleymarine.com , http://www.marinepartsexpress.com and http://www.ebasicpower.com

But even if you have to buy the pump, you shouldn't have much trouble selling a new-never-used trim pump.

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"Knot Easy" 2000 Horizon 240 Volvo 5.7GS /SX
tow: 2017 Honda PILOT EXL-AWD
prev. boats:
'87 Chaparral 198CXL 4.3 OMC Cobra
'69 Jetstar 16ft Ski Boat, 115hp Yamaha
'68 Aluminum Jon Boat, 3hp Sears
'64 Water Wings

getting back to MY post, turns out the motor got loose which disrupted the coupler alignment, sheared all the splines, I feel fortunate it didn't burn up the outdrive, we should be back on the water soon, you know what they say: B.O.A.T.- Bust Out Another Thousand

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wakeskate and wakeboard with no boat?!-
http://www.phoenixwinch.com

1994 Freedom 170
OMC Cobra (by Volvo Penta) 3.0L

Are they covering the cost of the coupler repair? Because engines just don't get loose, either someone didn't install the engine mounts correctly, or there was rot in the engine mount that someone did not notice...

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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

could be either, loose nuts or unnoticed rot, she's in a different shop for fix for this repair, it's been about 20 months since the motor was pulled, a friend owns the shop that did the work and I dont want to sabotage the relationship over it, I think they'd likely say it has to do with the age and not their fault which would start an argument I'll just avoid

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wakeskate and wakeboard with no boat?!-
http://www.phoenixwinch.com

1994 Freedom 170
OMC Cobra (by Volvo Penta) 3.0L

Just noticed you're in Phx Az, probably not rot because of your dry climate unless the bilge always had water in it...the front mount on the 4 cyl is low in the bilge unlike the V6/V8 models...

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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