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Strut might be bent


schaefy

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I was just pulling away from the dock and putting it in and out of gear to get away and bump, felt like a car hitting a speed bump.

This made me swear and turned it off then sacrificed a small animal and then started it up and it idled away fine then give it some gas and let the SHAKES BEGIN.

I went and got a new prop and it has been fine, the old one was repaired and now I have a spare.

The only problem now is when I hit it, there is vibration taking off then gone after a couple seconds.

What I am wondering is the strut might be a little bent to the left.

Were can I buy a new one?

Does anyone have a manuel to replace this?

Any websites that someone could point me to.

Thanks,

2002 malibu sunsetter lx

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It's really difficult to determine if the strut is bent, especially if it is only slightly bent, as your sounds.

The only true test I can come up with is to unbolt your prop shaft coupling and see if it is extremely out of alignment.

I bent mine this summer and couldn't tell if it was truly bent until I unbolted the coupling and it jumped about 1/2" out of alignment as soon as I removed the last bolt.

Replacement isn't bad, just unbolt and reinstall. The worse part, that I found, after 2000 models or somewhere in there, you have to buy your struts from Malibu. Still not bad $265. Just make sure your shaft is straight and also make sure yo align your engine to the new strut/shaft location. Sort of like the tail waggin the dog....

Good luck.

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Take your shaft out and make sure it's not what's causing the vibration. I put my old dd on a rocky sandbar and the part of the shaft between the strut and the prop had a small bend. I noticed it when I took the prop off to get repaired and had someone rotate the shaft while I looked at it.

On our new boat (used but new to us) the previous owner had hit something and dinged the prop and apparently drove with it like that for some time. I found there to be excess play in the strut bearings that caused a vibration that was noticeable mostly at idle in gear but also noticable at speed (although reduced). I had to remove the strut to replace those though so if you're going down that route, might as well swap the strut if you have any suspicions.

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You have the correct answers above - it's either the shaft or the strut (actually, could be both :( ). If it's the strut, you usually can see some strike damage to it or some damage to the fiberglass -it's bolted through the hull. It generally takes a pretty good hit to damage a strut, and it's unusual to bend a strut without bending the shaft. It's much easier to bend a shaft. I would so this: with the boat on your trailer and hooked up to a water supply (fak-a-lake is fine), take another water hose and supply water to the strut where the shaft goes through - water is the lubricant. Then have someone in the boat and put the engine in gear and spin the prop (be carefull). See if you can observe any wobbling in the prop or notice anything unusual in the strut (eg, it is loose). I would put my money on a bent shaft. You can have shafts straightened at commercial boat propeller shops (like Baumann's here in Houston). New shafts are expensive. Struts cannot be straightened, at least I have never seen it done and if Baumann Marine Service cannot do it, then, IMO, it cannot be done.

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