I got some muffs and ran it for a while. I found the source of the clattering.
It's coming from right behind the prop, like you said. It only does it in
neutral. Every time it clatters you can see the prop hop forward a little.
When I engage it in forward it stops making noise and the prop starts
spinning. when I try to put it in reverse at low rpm it clatters even more.
If I turn up the throttle some it finally seems to drop into gear and starts
spinning in reverse. I'll look for those grease plugs like you said.

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Message posted via http://www.boatkb.com

Shift cable adjustment. That's can be a bit tricky too as it not only puts
it into gear but to get them out of gear there are a couple switches that
interupt the ignition. Another rube goldburg if you ask me. The gears are
cut so the engine torque holds them in. But then when the prop is pushing
against the water you can't get it out of gear worth a damn. So they put
switches in that actually stall the engine for a second so you can get the
gears apart. The whole deal only works when it is in the water too. When
it is on land there is no resistance pushing back on the prop. Try just
adjusting the cable that goes to the out drive and not the one that comes
from the shifter. The plugs are screw in plugs, not grease fittings. They
will be flush. Sounds like you're doing pretty good so far :-) That free
boat might just be all right.

"Rand_man50 via BoatKB.com" u26765@uwe wrote in message
news:667d99a762e85@uwe...
I got some muffs and ran it for a while. I found the source of the
clattering.
It's coming from right behind the prop, like you said. It only does it in
neutral. Every time it clatters you can see the prop hop forward a little.
When I engage it in forward it stops making noise and the prop starts
spinning. when I try to put it in reverse at low rpm it clatters even
more.
If I turn up the throttle some it finally seems to drop into gear and
starts
spinning in reverse. I'll look for those grease plugs like you said.

--
Message posted via http://www.boatkb.com