Good news?? Maybe??

As I mentioned on another thread recently,, had a new noise coming from what I thought was the gear on the way home from the San Juans, about 3 hours out from home.

It was a growly, grinding noise at speed and a noisy clatter at idle. Pulled a sample of trans fluid and shipped it off to the lab. Got that back yesterday, all the numbers pointed to,,, normal. Hmmm?

So just now I had a local mech come down and have a listen, showed him the report, we ran the thing in and out of gear, reved it up etc. Only noise we could hear, and he has good ears, unlike me, was aft of the trans.
There is a shaft bearing about a quarter inch directly in front of the stuffing box. I knew it was there but never though much about it, it was replaced as new when I was hauled for shaft and stuffing box work right after I bought the boat in spring of '16.

Mech is fairly certain that the bearing is the culprit. Will have to cut if off to begin with and then we will run it without the bearing and see how it behaves. He says it may be totally superfluous and in fact is in the way of changing packing in the box were it needed.

So that's where it is at the moment. He wasn't sure when he could get to it, being still pretty busy, but the weather has turned to rainy/squally already so not like it happened in July!
I have my fingers crossed. Will post further as I know more.

What exactly does that bearing do?

Supposed to be a support bearing, but its close proximity to the stuffing box and the bulkhead make it seem unnecessary at best.

How do you repack the shaft gland with the bearing so close? ***oops! Nevermind! I missed the explanation in your prior post!

There are shaft bearings with full ball or roller bearings that split in half so they can be replaced with out pulling the shaft. They do cost about 5x the usual shaft bearing ,Pacific marine has small shaft sizes.

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No doubt we will look into that if it proves the bearing is necessary there. Yet to be determined. Thanks!!

My local mech took the bearing off, test ran at the dock, seemed OK. Took it out and ran it up to and beyond standard RPM range, seemed fine. Back to the dock, ran smooth and quiet, no more growling. Definitely a bad bearing and one that will remain off for the time being.


Got the bill today for the repair. Lets just say I am quite pleased, especially since a tranny repair or replacement would have been many thousands and this cost me less than $500 bucks.

Glad you got it fixed. Do you think that you will ever replace the bearing?

Not unless there is some reason to not now known. It was definitely an aftermarket job, and probably never needed in the first place. Only 3 ft from stuffing box to coupling.

Maybe it was not installed properly and that may be why it was grinding, not aligned???

No, it was too close to the stuffing box and salt water worked its way into the bearing and ruined it. It came apart in chunks of rusted, corroded metal. It was toast.

I have a mechanics stethoscope in my box just for this kind of thing. Paid for itself over and over!