got a possible shaft tranny bind problem need an expert!

[jester111e]

Ran my 04 21i two weeks ago and was smelling of fuel pretty bad when in gear and as I went from power to neutral I was hearing a funny clunking noise
so we got it home and fired it up on the fake a lake and put in in gear an the clunking was very loud and appeared to be in the tranny. well that obviously
explained the excess fuel consumption the motor was having to work twice as hard to pull one problem out.....so we drop the prop shaft and the shaft dropped a quarter inch
below the tranny plate and about a 1/16 inch to the left. so we start to wondering if the clunking was actually in the tranny or in the shaft so we fired it back up sans shaft and the
tranny made no noise in forward or reverse even with both of us putting a boot on it for pressure and of course not running we could turn the tranny by fingers and the prop shaft you
basically have to hang on to get to turn a half revolution. it appears that the previous owner might have hit something at one time we noticed that the motor mounts appeared to be moved
about a quarter inch forward and the shaft strut looks as if the prop has gotten into it the brass and it is swelled at the end. the shaft looks to be running on the bottom of the shaft seal hole
coming out of the hull and looks centered in the strut where it goes in but looks like its running on the bottom of it at the prop end and the rubber looks pretty worn out so I need some direction here
from the tige masters out there. Of course has to be before a holiday weekend right? Murphy wouldn't have it any other Way!!
thanks everyone!

[boatwakes]

The shaft will fall away from the coupler whenever you remove it so the critical measurement here is where the two surfaces mate together. Specifications say the two surfaces should be less than .004" difference over the entire mating surface so perform shaft alignment like this: 1) bring the two coupler faces back together, there will be an indexing collar on the inside of the coupler that keeps it primarily aligned until all adjustments are made. 2) use a feeler gauge at .025 (just as an example, any size is okay but that's where I start). 3) Pinch the feeler gauge between the coupler faces and then work the feeler all the way around 360* feeling for tension or gaps. If the alignment is on, there should be none. If it's off, adjust the motor mounts, front and back, to get the coupler faces within tolerance, eliminating any gaps or tight spots. Retest using step 2, theorizing this: if .025" doesn't fit in a tight spot, in order to be within spec .021" must fit in the same tight spot. If .021 fits all the way around, no gap can be greater than .025" (all tolerances within .004"). The alignment will have a direct impact on the life of the strut bearing. If you can grab the shaft and rattle it around any axis inside the strut you should replace the strut bearing too (factory tolerance is .010" but the rattle technique is what we use). If the propeller ever made contact with the strut, it would machine the strut face and not mushroom or swell it out, bronze marks pretty easy. However, there should be about an inch of distance between prop face and strut. Try to turn a propshaft out of the water is damn near impossible because the strut bearing uses water as the lubricant between it and the shaft so don't stress about that (also DO NOT RUN THE BOAT IN GEAR OUT OF THE WATER WITHOUT HAVING A SEPARATE WATER HOSE ON THE SHAFT BEARING!!!).

As for the noise you're hearing, I will almost guarantee it's the drive plate rattling because the motor isn't running perfect. Most likely you don't have anything wrong with the transmission if the sound is only at idle either in idle gear or neutral idle. The excessive fuel smell means there's something else going on with the motor causing it to have issues at low rpm (which will be where the drive plate noise happens because the motor is not turning efficiently at slow speeds causing it to backlash against the springs in the drive plate).

More symptoms please

[jester111e]

Thanks for the input! The noise is a definitive clunking but only as your coming into or out of power and we could feel it in the tranny while it was running and never had the excessive fuel smell until the boat was engaged and under power which suggests to me that something is dragging the engine down enough that it is loading up fuel to try and keep up. we ran it out of gear at all rpm levels and after we unhooked the shaft and no excessive fuel smell was present but as soon as you engage the drive with the shaft hooked up it was clunking and the excess fuel smell was present. If the strut bearing is bad will that put enough bind on the motor and drive train to cause such a mess? I have taken care of this thing since I got the boat and done all the maintenance myself and I do have some mechanical knowledge so I 'm still a little out on this one. I still believe that my motor is sitting too far forward because the impeller housing is worn on the bottom from rubbing on the engine cover and its been that way since ive owned the boat and the motor is probly a little less than half and inch lower on the left side than the right measuring to the floor. I will try and get some pics uploaded of the strut and motor alignment stuff for you.
Thanks,
Eric