Jet Drive Rattle

[BoatSki]

Anyone have any ideas what could cause this rattling sound coming from the impeller housing area? I tried adding more grease to the intermediate bearing with no luck.

Bad sounding jet drive -

Good sounding jet drive -

Another video of the rattling noise -

 

[tdonoughue]

Sounds like your impeller is hitting your wear ring. Don't see a location on your profile. Do you boat in salt?

 

[BoatSki]

I'm in Connecticut in fresh water 90% of the time. I haven't been in the salt yet this year.

 

[tdonoughue]

Ok. With an '08, I would still bet this is it. Shut it down and see if you have space between the impeller and the wear ring all the way around the circumference. Or pull the impeller and look at the ring and impeller for wear. It happens faster in salt, but can happen with fresh water, too: the wear ring begins to corrode and expands, contacting the impeller... Makes horrible noise, but also can ultimately make it so you can't start the engine.

The cure is to replace the wear ring.

 

[Gym]

@tdonoughue is correct. If you look carefully at the wear ring you will likely see scuff Mark's where the impeller is contacting the wear ring. Also run your fingers over each of the impeller blades. You will likely feel a burr where the blade is slightly rolled over from rubbing.

I replaced both my wear rings with OEM units and was able to file the burrs off the impeller blades. You also want to pull the bearing cones and check/grease the bearings.

 

[TOGA]

Check the pump bearings.

Pull the clean-out plug and grab the shaft. If it moves / wiggles, stop using using it and replace the bearings. I grenade mine after not acknowledging the ping / rattle noise.

Water intruded the bearings and washed every bit of grease out. Once it started pinging, it did not take long to shred them.

 

[BoatSki]

Thanks everyone. I grabbed the shaft today and it did not seem to have any play. It does seem like replacing the wear ring would be the best place to start and possibly the bearing while I'm in there. If anyone has any DIY info or video on replacing the wear ring it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BoatSki]

I took the pump off and pulled the shaft. When I spin the impeller by hand It's noisy. Going to try and replace the bearing that's inside the cone.

 

[tdonoughue]

Pull the cone off an inspect. Every time you pull the cone, you should replace the seal there. You may find water intrusion (the grease looks very white, opaque), or that the bearings are shot or that everything is fine. Then you will know exactly what to buy to fix it.

 

[BoatSki]

The cone was cracked (see attached pic) which most likely caused water to get in and trash the bearing. Replacing both bearings, seals, o rings and new cone/cap.

 

[tdonoughue]

Wow! That is a new one. Never seen one cracked before. Any idea as to why it would have cracked? Other than age? I think we have lots of '08's around and I think this is the first I have seen cracked...

 

[BoatSki]

The only explanation that we have come up with so far is relating to corrosion over time. It ran great yesterday and sounds much better!

 

[tdonoughue]

Wondering if it was a manufacturing defect. That is just a very strange place for there to be corrosion (e.g. why in that spot and not around the rest of the circumference?).

At any rate, glad you are up and running!