www.iFourWinns.com

Does anybody know what went wrong. I developed a slight vibration (even when idle) when I turn the wheel one direction. I didn't think to much of it and regret it now because later when I was cruising the outdrive got very loud and before I could stop, "BANG" I had noting. It looks like what ever exploded ripped open the below under neath the outdrive (sorry no pictures). The boat has ran great all summer and I had the marina re-balance my prop's last week. I had the marina redo my prop last week hoping that was the root cause but it didn't fix the problem.

Any idea's what could have went wrong? Did something that hit the prop also rip the below, then water got into something and the rest was history?

Just curious what the main cause of the vibration was so I can avoid it next time.

Thanks,

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Dan


06 H260 VP 8.1Gi DP

Sounds like a U-joint failed, but that seems unlikely on an '06 unless water got up in there somehow. Did you have to be towed?

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

I too think it's a u joint.

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

Thanks guys I was thinking the same thing but I don't understand why. Does the U-Joint Rotate when the boat is not in gear? What kind of $$ am I looking at, I got home to find out my house roof is leaking also. Grrr!

Yes we had to get towed. The short story is we turned around at the Cleveland Harbor to head back in when the noise was bad and it when crunch just inside the harbor. It was windy and we started to float toward the rocks and the anchor wasn't catching. I had to convince a guy I had flagged down to pull me away with a 22ft and he was very hesitant even though I was about 4ft to the rocksa at that point. Meanwhile I was making a "mayday" call to the coast guard who got there quickly as well. Tow Boat U.S. showed up not a minute later as well and thank god I'm a member! Not a fun day

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Dan


06 H260 VP 8.1Gi DP

Yes. On a boat, the drive shaft is turning anytime the engine is running, whether in gear or not. I'm not sure what those U-joints will run you, but I would say "not cheap." Yours are not grease-able - they're "maintenance free." I would have the mechanic try hard to determine why they failed so soon. Unless you put a huge number of hours on every year, or run it trimmed up too high, 5 years is too soon for those to fail.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

That is unusual, ujoints on an I/O can last a very long time as long as water doesn't get in the bellows and you don't run it in the trailer position above idle speed. The ones in my 88 Cobra could be original for all I know, they have never been changed since I've owned it (2002). I don't get why they eliminated the grease fittings, this allowed me to grease it every year and I'm sure helped the one year I had a leak in the bellows (2004) I was able to grease em up and force out the moisture. That and the other 'improvement' the permanently lubed gimble bearing has me wondering what is progress....

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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

Thanks, I keep the boat in rack storage and have never run the boat out of water since I have purchased it. I only trim the boat very little when cruising so that can't be it. I purchased it used at the beginning of summer and have put about 90 hours on it this year. Who knows what the guy did before I bought it but I also paid for a complete inspection. Grrr

I'll keep everybody posted. Thanks again for the comments.

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Dan


06 H260 VP 8.1Gi DP

wow! Thats a lot of hours in one summer. Its a very nice looking boat!

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2011 SL242 5.7 VP GXi - 320 HP Dual Prop

Well got more bad news today and thought I would share my pain. The U-Joint did explode AND it took out my transom. My season is officially over because Transom's are on back order from Valvo and they run about $4500 alone (plus 10-12 hours labor). I'm bummed, I purchased this boat in May and I guess it's a risk you take. When you purchase something used, you can only inspect so much and just hope the guy knew how to operate a boat. I miss my little 17.5ft Bayliner right now.

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Dan


06 H260 VP 8.1Gi DP

Dan,

U/Js shouldn't just fail catastrophically with so little warning; they get noisy, but thinking of their construction, it's difficult to envisage why they should fail unless it's a manufacturing or assembly fault. Yours will be non-greasable, with circlips in the yokes / intermediate holding the U/Js in place ; are they all present ? Someone on this forum from Australia had a catastrophic driveshaft failure with a 2005 8.1 Sundowner a few years ago, I don't recall ever reading what caused that.

Graham

I agree with Graham, on a boat that new, unless it had water in it from when it was new, ujoints do not fail that fast, and they give warning with noises. Years ago my uncle had a 67 Plymouth Fury, that had bad ujoints, it was so bad, the whole rear seat of the car vibrated at highway speeds, we told him to fix it, he never did, several months later, the joints failed and the driveshaft wound up on the highway!
I had a leak the the bellows once (salt water) but because we pulled the drive when we winterized it I was able to really grease the joints up good and they have been fine for 5 seasons after that. So I think there may have been some kind of defect in assembly here...

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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

+1, something is missing in this story. Manufacturing defect or something.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

dsanow92,

That truly sucks! I looked at that boat several times on boattrader when I was in the market. Similarly, my 2005 also had u-joint issues. My boat had previously sat outside with the outdrive raised for an extended period of time. I knew it had prior water intrusion as they had to replace the bellows and gimbal bearing prior to me purchasing it. In the middle of last summer, I too started to experience some slight vibrations, especially under hard turning. I had my mechanic take a look at it and he said it would make it through summer, but I should plan on new u-joints during winterization. The vibrations progressively got worse, but we fortunately made it to the end of summer. After he showed me my old u-joints, I told him we were cutting it too close and should have changed them mid-summer, and he definitely agreed. He didn't think they would deteriorate further as fast as they did. I ended up replacing the drive shaft as well because you could see where the joints were starting to eat away one of the eyes on the drive shaft. Another note is there was just a little bit of rust on the u-joints, but not what I would refer to as "rusted". However, you could feel them binding up easily just by moving them with your hands. All in all, I think I was just lucky. I'm not trying to rub salt in your wound, but had you caught this in time, you would have had <$500 parts bill for the u-joints and drive shaft combined.

The point is there are at least 3 2005/06 FW with 8.1L engines with relatively low hours that had u-joint failures, all on this little thread. If my memory serves me correct, our models are right about the time frame when they switched to the grease-less joints. I've never heard of u-joints being a chronic problem on this setup before, but maybe I've never heard of it because the problem is just now starting to show itself. Could the metal used not have been spec'd for the tourque of the 8.1L? I'm just reaching for straws, but maybe Graham, Lou, Mike and others are right and these failures may not be a coincidence. I would push the issue if I were you.

As my mechanic wisely said after I told him to also replace the drive shaft, "You've got 400+ HP pushing a 5,000 lb boat across the water all depending on this little shaft / joint assembly. You really don't want to take any chances for that to fail!".

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2005 FW Horizon 250
8.1L VP DP

Great information JDW250, wish I would have saw that thread before all this, I planned on looking up the vibration when I got home

Oh well my fault! I did a little more research and found some Bellow recall information you guys might find interesting if you didn't know about it all ready.
look up "volvo service bulletin number 44-1-75". I spoke to Volvo this morning and I'm getting them the transom assembly serial number to see if it applies for me. I doubt it because it got released in 09. I don't know if it will help, but at least worth looking into.

I also have an insurance adjuster looking at it today. It's a stretch but there was a ding in my prop at the same time my u-joints went bad, I had the repair done right after and the shop has record of it. When the U-Joint failed it was the first trip since the repair.

Noticing a theme "Its worth looking into at least". I'll keep the updates coming, thanks for the help.

Dan

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Dan


06 H260 VP 8.1Gi DP

I didn't take time to read everything I could find, but that recall only seems to apply to composite drives?

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic