Damper plate upgrade

[tvano]

Tvano - We have gone through 2 damper plates in year due to the same/similar noise noted above. The second replacement came about 75 hours after the first and was the heavy duty from Indmar. It made a noise that was louder and worse than the original noise but Indmar swore it was because of the heavy duty nature of the part. Low and behold 50 hours later (less than 4 months) we have a cracked crankshaft and full motor rebuild. Just took the boat out for the first time since the new motor and noise is gone. Our mechanic believes the crankshaft was the issue the entire time.

Just want to throw it out there, it might be worth digging a bit deeper than just assuming another damper plate failure. Best of luck (or at least better than mine)

i'm not ready, willing or able to deal w a cracked crank. that would make me very unhappy.

[Lance B. Johnson]

For those of you that just want to know if you have a problem or not.

I had an idea for diagnosis. Not entirely sure how well it will work but I think it might.

Why not pull the starter and run a flexible magnet through the hole. If you pull any metal out, any at all, replace the damper plate before it goes.

[InternetGroper]

I have a 2001 Wakesetter/Sunsetter vlx with the 325 monsoon. If I idle at low speed then drop it into neutral sometimes i will hear a "chattering" and feel it in the floor. It doesn't do it all the time but it is quite common. Would this be indicative of the damper plate going? It has done it for some time now and the boat has been regularly serviced. I have no wedge or loose hardware and the vibration in idle leads me to believe its on the engine side of the vdrive. The boat runs fine and drives well otherwise, no major engine repairs in the past.

[coyote055]

You might try what Ruffdog suggested or you could pull the bottom cover off of the bell housing and see if there are any spring bits or chunks of metal in there. In any case, it's worth looking into if you even suspect that there could be a problem. I was lucky that mine let go at low RPM with no load, others haven't been so lucky.

[bg2pres]

Ok, i have a 2005 Wakesetter 23 LSV with 5.7L 340 Monsoon and am replacing my Damper Plate with the skidim HD one.

I had to remove all the rear seats and sun deck from the boat and the aluminum braces behind the rear seat at bottom and the black braces that hold up the sun deck and ski tow. I did unscrew the carpeted walls from the floor with those angled braces. it gave me 2-4mm of room, and i needed it. I didn't know how dirty it was back there. Great chance to detail, re-glue carpet under gunnels and correct wiring, repack shaft, change tranny and v-drive fluids, impeller and thermostat change after drivetrain is back together..

I jacked up the engine with 2 small bottle jacks and unbolted the tranny mounts. I did NOT have to remove the starter as it was bolted to the engine from the bottom and not the bell-housing. I did have to unbolt and move to the side, the electric fuel pump, the wire panel, unhook the tranny cooler lines and the tranny electrical sensors and the negative cable to the starter. I did remove the water hoses on right and left side of v-drive and sensor wires.

I jacked it up roughly 6" and slid off the v-drive first, leaving the adapter on the tranny. It was wicked tight and had to slide the v-drive off to the starboard side, not raising it up, vertically. That was a pain!

My damper plate had cracks where the springs were , but it ripped the sheet metal from the mounting bolts. So, when i pulled the tranny off, it fell into the bilge.

When mine started to go, the shift was a little harder for a month. Then i heard chirping in neutral fr a summer. Then one day it was an obvious chirp/squeak and rattle during idle in forward. I throttled up to get on plane and was good. Then stopped to put a wakeboarder in the water. Pulled the boarder a session then stopped. Then came up again on plane without towing anyone and it just stopped. No gears at all, forward or reverse and no loud bang or noise, just nothing.

My Procedure;

1. Remove everything on vdrive, leaving black ground wire connected until vdrive is out. There is enough wire. Unhook sensor wires on port side. I completely removed the intake hose from bottom of boat to v-drive and unhooked the other and laid in bilge.

2. Unbolt electric fuel pump from bellhousing on starboard side, next to oil filter, sits verticle, and tie back. (9/16") you don't have to unhook fuel lines.

3. Unbolt starter ground wire and remove bolt from bell housing. (9/16")

4. Unbolt flywheel inspection plate with 2 bolts on bottom which the face rear, opposite bellhousing mounting bolts, and remove plate. (1/2")

5. Unbolt coupler to prop shaft underneath v-drive, marking both sections for good lineup when replacing (9/16")

6. Unbolt electronics plate (9/16") which is bolted to engine and tie back and up. Unhook 2 sensor wires on the housing on top of shift linkage.

7. Remove tranny fluid cooler hoses, 2 of them with brass fittings, and tie up, will have oil in them. (7/8" wrench)

8. Unbolt tranny mounts to the boat, they have backer nuts that you can reach through the holes provided (9/16", both bolt and nut, there are washers, so don't lose).

9. Loosen front bolts to engine mounts only, so you don't rip the rubber mounts for the engine.

10 remove v-drive nuts and lock washers, all of them, it wont move or fall....

11. Get a buddy! Remove band clamps from exhaust header to muffler and pull hoses on top of exhaust manifold.

12. Jack the engine up until the bottom hose 90 degree fitting on V-Drive is just below the boat floor.

13. Pull like hell, then when it gets really loose on the shaft, rotate v-drive towards starboard and it will come off. Remember, its still on the shaft when you clear the mounting studs, so don't let it hang or you may damage the seals.

14. Unbolt ground wire when you have v-drive off and lay to the side (3/8"). You don't have to drain oil.

15. Move fuel tank fill hoses, starter wires, etc, rear of tranny mounts. This will be obvious.

16. Remove all but top bolt on bell housing.

17. With a buddy on one side holding tranny mount and you on the other, remove top bolt and pull tranny off. Check bell housing for damage or cracks.

18. There is your damper plate. Unbolt (9/16") and replace. There are no washers. Skidim says there may be clearance issues as the new damper plate, if the heavy duty, is 1/4" thicker. I had no issues. If you do, ground down the bolts a little.

Reverse to install. It was hot as hell and i am getting old, so took me a good 2 days with breaks.

I have pics, don't know how to upload. Hopefully this will help!

Edited May 20, 2013 by bg2pres

[Bosstic]

John23lsv. Nice post and incredible work on the boat houses! Did your damper plate noise sound anything like this in the video I posted? Any input would be great. Thanks.

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/44720-enginetransmission-knocking-sound-with-video/

[saxton15]

Has anyone completed this on a newer LSV (2010+)?  The reason I ask, is that though this is an amazing resource, I wonder if there are different steps to take as the layout of the engine and tranny may have changed from year to year.

 

Towards the end of last season, I noticed a slight ticking sound coming from the top of the tranny towards the engine.  I'm going to check the bell housing this coming weekend for any parts kicking around.  If there are any out there who have done it recently, I'd like to hear steps taken to getting to the damper plate, or if they are much different than what John laid out in this article. 

[Falko]

I haven't heard the plates being an issue in the newer boats.

[saxton15]

3 hours ago, Falko said:

I haven't heard the plates being an issue in the newer boats.

That's what I'm unsure about.  What I've read is that the newer style damper plates were only started in 2015. 

[goodmatt78]

Any video or sound clip of the symptom noise?  It would be great to post for us on the look out.  The previous vid a few posts up just sounds like clunking in and out of gear and not the resonance people talk about in gear and at idle speed.

 

Thanks.