Thanks. At this stage I'm not even thinking about rattling/clunking noise.
When I put the engine together I'll have one more chance to reexamine
everything. I have the engine hanging on chains and wonder how do I go about
the coupler. The rest will come later. One thing I know 4 sure that 2
mechanics have missed the alignment part (or thought that it may be ignored
for a while and both were wrong). Most upsetting is that I pointed that out
to both and from that moment became an annoyance. They seemed to have no
appreciation for other point of view at the moment.

Now, I've had a look at the coupler and seen zero damage but.since the idea
of the coupler is to inject a weak point into the drive system to protect
crank and drive shafts I wonder where is the breaking point for a coupler.
If a spun coupler (for a few secs) may still be usable or regardless of its
look should be replaced anyway. With other words, is this enough to spin it
just one turn to break the rubber layers bond or does it remain good until
the spinning visually separates rubber bushings (burned, melted rubber would
be visible then). Since the engine is stripped of exhaust I have to work
backwards, start with the coupler, put the exhaust, linkage, electrical
together and test yoke/u-joint play, engine alignment and potentially
outdrive issues. Just don't want to put it back together to later have to
dismantle it again to yank the coupler out. I don't feel like going back and
forth few times over.

As indicated impeller is just a cost of testing which I don't mind.
Otherwise I see no issues with running the engine dry as long as there is
sufficient lubrication. As I said I've done it several times on different
engines always successfully without any issues or signs of trouble (no need
for cooling something that is still cold). But that issue is beyond the
scope of this subject. Coupler is.
Btw. Cobra has the best setup allowing impeller removal in just few minutes.
Very handy, at least in my opinion.

My take is this: the engine was out of alignment which has caused u-joint
jamming momentarily and that has caused coupler to let go for a moment (blue
smoke from the engine compartment - back of the engine - typical for coupler
failure) and was immediately shut down.


"Mr Wizzard" wrote in message
...

"Proxy" wrote in message
...

damage except for impeller that I have written off anyway for this
experiment.

Ah, Ok, I didn't realize that you wrote off the impeller (I missed that)
(but the rubber smell could be the impeller galling up down there)

So, you didn't say anything about the U-joints. And when
mechanic dude said the yoke "isn't right", whats that mean?
Wrong one, wrong size, or bad, or what?

have you peaked inside the outdrive? bled a little bit of
grear juice out the bottom of the lower unit to look for
shavings? You replaced the coupler, or said that there
is no visable damage, or difference between that one,
and the one that was given to you, so I can't see that
being the problem. Besides, think about it, there is
nothing really to rattle there - the spline is a very percision
fit, and nothing really to rattle. Things that can rattle a
connecting rods, pistons, U-joints, yokes, bevel gears etc.
Could they have missed the shift-shaft lever alignment when
putting the outdive on? - dog clutch caught between gears?
Its all a pretty solid chunk of metal down there, so noise
can be transmitting from anywhere.

Hate to be stupid here, but are you SURE its not the motor?
i.e. since your not worried about water, cooling, impellers,
can you pop the outdrive off, and try to run the motor wihtout
the outdrive ? And whats the gimbal bearing look like ?
The front input shaft bearing for the outdive unit itself ?

Keep us posted.