Port Engine Clun

S

Sailfan26

New Member
Nov 20, 2012
28
Boston
Boat Info
1993 Sea Ray 330 Sundancer
Engines
Twin Mercruisers
Greetings All,
My Sea Ray just hit the water. It's a 1993 Sundancer wth twin Mercruisers with approx. 900hrs. I had no problems last year and all was well when she was decommissioned for the winter. She has been professionally maintained each year. This sets the question.

When I went to move her to her to her slip, she has developed a "clunking" sound only when in gear. It sounds like it is jumping in and out of gear but I'm told it's not and it didn't feel like it was underway. The Technician talked to a Transmission Spec and ran a couple of tests and concluded the transmission is OK. Now that the engine has some run time on it, the "clunking" seems to be easing.

Anyone have this happen to them?
 
Does the sound go away with a little bit of throttle, 50-100 rpms or so. If it does, I think its called the flex plate that is making the noise. Usually a good tune up or idle adjustment is all you need.
 
I had a similar scare. After I posted just about the same thing you did I've learned this. Our transmissions are noisy.
At idle rpm if your down even slightly it sounds like little people are trying to hammer there way out bit if you bump the rpms up just a touch the sound will go away hence why the above post recommended a good tune up. This is normal a and keep on boating BTW that research was done on my Bourg warner zf velvet drive trans if my memory serves me right
Another known issue but again not a big deal just slightly annoying. The flex plate has little springs to soften the shifting. They rust and loosen and become noisy add a little rpm and they expand and tighten up.
 
Thanks! They are velvet drives and it does sound like someone is trying to hammer his way out. It only happens on the port side and it just started doing this. This is my 5th year with the boat and I never heard it before.

I'm going to look into the Flex Plate issue. I really appreciate this!
 
I haven't taken her out yet. Weather up here has been miserable. I hope to do that this week. Although, that's another issue. Seems my cables have stretched and I can't get the throttles to travel the distance to reach WOT. The hit the stop before it reaches 3000rpm.
 
I also have the same condition on my port transmission. At idle speed I hear a clunking noise. As soon as I give it a little throttle it goes away. Scared me at first too.
 
Port on mine aswell. Port trans runs in reverse and is noisier in and out of gear compared to start side
 
Funny same thing happened to me this year after shakedown cruise I noticed a banging sound coming through my exhaust when I got back into my slip isolated it to the starboard motor RPMs were sitting at 600 I don't remember what they normally are I think 650 something must've lowered it because if I give it a little bit of gas the noise goes away definitely sounds just like little people trying to get out going to try and lower the RPMs on the port motor to 600 and see if I can duplicate the exact same sound


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joeyleggz said:
Funny same thing happened to me this year after shakedown cruise I noticed a banging sound coming through my exhaust when I got back into my slip isolated it to the starboard motor RPMs were sitting at 600 I don't remember what they normally are I think 650 something must've lowered it because if I give it a little bit of gas the noise goes away definitely sounds just like little people trying to get out going to try and lower the RPMs on the port motor to 600 and see if I can duplicate the exact same sound


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Click to expand...

Probably still have some chemicals left (fogging oil or of the sort) fouling your plugs or just mixing in with your fuel and giving it a little rough of an idle. I bet one more good run and some fresh fuel and it goes away
 
Check your spark plugs and wires.
 
So I've been running the boat all season with that sound of the tranny clunking while in reverse starboard side has not gone away just ran back from Watchhill 70 miles round-trip boat seems to run great trying to figure out what the sound is so I replaced the tranny fluid seemed fine not burnt maybe a little low but now moving on to the motor did a compression test and guess what? I found one cylinder with zero compression and one with 50 pounds of compression all other cylinders 125 psi did a leak down test on those two cylinders both seem to be leaking through the exhaust really didn't want to have to tear in this motor wondering if there's a way to fix this without ripping open the heads how can this motor appear to run so good with this many problems?


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