Engine vibration

[spaz944]

Hello all,

My boat has been stored for a year or so. I moved to Florida recently and put it in the water to get it on my boat lift. While motoring from the ramp to my house, there was a lot of vibration from one of the engines (in salt water now). We were able to get it to the house and on the lift. I have not had it out since then but did flush the engines and I did change the spark plugs as many had mentioned that causes a lot of issues. I also looked and felt inside the clean out ports and into the exit tubes.

Any ideas or things I could look for? I want to take it out but I don't want to get stranded either.

Thanks,

Matt

 

[JetPowered]

Have you greased the intermediate bearing?

 

[spaz944]

I have not. Do you think that could be it? I only have 10 hours on the boat as well. I need to change the oil and filters also.

 

[Bill D]

Did you check to make sure you didn't have any debris in the jet?

I had a tiny stick stuck between the impeller blade and wear ring one time and couldn't believe how much vibration / cavitation it caused.

 

[spaz944]

I did a check but I'll check agin closer. Thanks for the info.

 

[tdonoughue]

I agree on the check for debris suggestion. If you hunt with your hand from the top cleanout and do not find anything, if you can get under the boat and see from the bottom side, that can be useful, too. I once had a hunk of wood stuck in the aft part of the impeller. Could not feel it from on top, but from the bottom it was right there in front of me (it was really stuck, too--wound up pulling the grate...).

 

[spaz944]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll get a closer look when the rain stops. I hope it's something that simple and not something major.

 

[Bill D]

I hope so too. It's a good place to start. Keep the board updated and I'm sure you'll get all the help you need to figure it out.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Check that impeller area carefully. If your boat is on a lift you might want to stick your phone into the clean out port and shoot some video towards the impeller. Hold it still to allow it to focus.

Doubt the intermediate bearing is the cause.

What kind of speeds did you run with vibration? Sounds like spark plugs to me. Bad plugs usually cause a surging of rpm's at idle and rough knocking at speed. Bad fuel would cause both motors to stumble. Could be a bad connection in the spark plug coil but would be ok now that you removed and replaced the coils.