2002 Malibu VLX 21.5' - Shaft/Propeller

[Carlos]

Greetings all,

I recently had an accident with my boat where a brutal storm almost sunk my boat. Thank God it sunk near a shore where it was retrievable. I'm in the process of repairing the damage. I was able to crank the engine up.

Now I'm repairing the cosmetics and external damages. The boat was laying on the bottom of the lake, so most of the weight was on the propeller. I recently had the propeller repaired. Looks great.

I took out it out for a test drive and notice a lot of vibrations on the boat. I'm guessing the shaft was bent. But I also notice that the boat prevented me from accelerating faster speeds.

I know that there is a sensor that slows down the boat if services is needed. But I didn't know it was able to read the damage of the shaft. OR am I missing something else? Is the sensor indicating that something else is wrong, other than the shaft?

So, I'm in the process of replacing the shaft. Please let me know what else I should replace or look into. Any info is greatly appreciated.

[smileysteve]

Keep in mind that if the shaft is bent and you are running it that you are wallowing out the hull, seal, and support bearing. You may want to do additional engine testing out of gear.

I would suspect that most of your speed loss is from vibration as opposed to the engine being in limp mode; depending on the struggle for it to crank. Depending on which engine you have, the sensors to work but go awry would be crank angle / dizzy, water temperature, and knock sensors.

[Carlos]

Once I pull out the shaft, I can take a closer look at the gears. But when I test drove the boat, I didn't go for long periods. As soon as I notice something was off, I pulled it off the lake. So I don't think I damaged anything else with a bent shaft. But I'll definitely take another look.

What other additional testing do you recommend?

I appreciate the response.

[Eagleboy99]

Let your insurance sort it.  I'd be very concerned about the electronics.

[justgary]

Check the shaft before you remove it (unless it is obviously bent).  Several threads on here describe how to tape a stiff wire to the hull and use it as a gauge to check the shaft. 

Next check the strut to make sure it isn't bent. 

Next check the alignment if the shaft and strut are ok. 

Any of those can cause vibration. 

[JeffK]

18 hours ago, justgary said:

Check the shaft before you remove it (unless it is obviously bent).  Several threads on here describe how to tape a stiff wire to the hull and use it as a gauge to check the shaft. 

Next check the strut to make sure it isn't bent. 

Next check the alignment if the shaft and strut are ok. 

Any of those can cause vibration. 

I got curious and was doing some searching on the stiff wire suggestion, but couldn't find anything.  Can you point me to that or describe what you are referring to?  I've not heard of this approach before.

[justgary]

This thread should help.

[Carlos]

Thanks guys for the response. So I took it to a dealer, and found out that there was more water in the fuel system. This caused the vibrations. Also, the shaft is not bent. Propeller is in great condition. So I found the problem. Thanks!

[smileysteve]

That's much better news; if they didn't, I'd empty the fuel tank, change the fuel filter.

(depending on how environmental you want to be, may be able to dilute old gas w/ new gas in a low cost engine like a lawnmower for a bit)