No just the one bearing. Its about 2" long situated in the transom housing.
The inboard end of the shaft sits inside the middle of the flywheel and the
shaft is driven by a splined flex plate secured with about 7 bolts round the
outer circumference of the flywheel.

Cam

"jamesgangnc" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Feb 22, 12:12 am, "Grant" wrote:
Dan,

You saying the rivets let go and flex plate components start to come
apart?
Could be it. You suppose there is a way to check that before I lift the
engine out or remove the leg again? The noise is definately inside the
boat.
Inside the transom housing or bell housing that is. Maybe I should swing
the
prop and see if the flywheel wants to move, or not.

Cam

"Danlw" wrote in message

. ..





"Grant" wrote in message
...
Stern drive boats do indeed have a flexible coupling between the
engine
flywheel and the intermediate shaft which attaches to the universal
joints.
In the BMW it is a flexplate with a spline. The Mercruisers have a
rubber
coupling.

Cam

And, I have seen them with slots instead of holes due to wear. Thing
is,
if you can hear it in the boat, that is usually where the problem is,
though can be upper gear case
as well.

Dan- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Don't know about the volvos but I would not call the merc piece a flex
plate. The later ones are a steel triangle with a rubber hub on the
center that bolts to the clutch pressure plate holes of a standard
flywheel. Early mercs had a much smaller coupler that bolted in the
center using the same bolts that held the flywheel to the crank. In
the parts catalogs they are both called couplers. Loose bolts on the
coupler could cause a rattle but I would expect it to be there all the
time. I tighten the crap out of mine when I have occasion to r&r it.

I would have to think that volvo has something pretty similar and that
theirs bolts to a standard flywheel as well. You need some weight at
the end of the crank. From you comments I'd guess that the volvo one
doesn't have the rubber component? The rubber in the merc one
compensates for a less than perfect outdrive to engine alignment.
Volvo must do a better job of aligning the outdrive to the engine
then. Otherwise I would expect an increased input shaft bearing
failure in their outdrives. Then again maybe that's your problem.
Does it have an additional carrier bearing in the transom housing
along the input shaft between the engine and the outdrive like a
merc? They can rattle as well.