Search the Community

"Overloading" the boat??? Excuse me, but I haven't yet seen ANY boat with wheels to provide a solid connection to "load" (and therefore, substantial load swings). Even a prop boat with more peeps than it's designed to hold, STILL has a "torque converter" type connection to the water (the prop ALWAYS slips). It's quite obvious that regardless of actual boat weight, the engine RPM varies little....and the ONLY result of "hull weight/load" is less speed, not tremendously reduced RPM. In fact, ANY lowering of the engine RPM at WOT will only lower the centrifugal force on the flexplate/dampers.... As to the dampers themselves, the most "compression" (or dampening) they will see is ALWAYS upon initial acceleration. About the only things that can effect damper "load" would be increased HP (ie: supercharger, nitrous, etc)....OR impact with the river/lake bottom. Either of these would surely cause additional "load" and/or "shock" to the flexplate/dampers....but if the engine is still as stock as when it was manufactured, and no solid contact has been made (noted by prop impact damage), damper load will not change. Seems to me to be a centrifugal failure of the plate/spring assembly.....NOT damper compression of that assembly. Just curious though Boarder....ever replace or repair a prop from impact damage? It wasn't on my boat, it was a friend of mine and he bought the boat used so I don't know the history of the boat. He's taking it apart this weekend so we might know a little more in regards to how it failed. He thinks the springs caused stress cracks in the plate that eventually came apart

"Overloading" the boat??? Excuse me, but I haven't yet seen ANY boat with wheels to provide a solid connection to "load" (and therefore, substantial load swings). Even a prop boat with more peeps than it's designed to hold, STILL has a "torque converter" type connection to the water (the prop ALWAYS slips). It's quite obvious that regardless of actual boat weight, the engine RPM varies little....and the ONLY result of "hull weight/load" is less speed, not tremendously reduced RPM. In fact, ANY lowering of the engine RPM at WOT will only lower the centrifugal force on the flexplate/dampers.... As to the dampers themselves, the most "compression" (or dampening) they will see is ALWAYS upon initial acceleration. About the only things that can effect damper "load" would be increased HP (ie: supercharger, nitrous, etc)....OR impact with the river/lake bottom. Either of these would surely cause additional "load" and/or "shock" to the flexplate/dampers....but if the engine is still as stock as when it was manufactured, and no solid contact has been made (noted by prop impact damage), damper load will not change. Seems to me to be a centrifugal failure of the plate/spring assembly.....NOT damper compression of that assembly. Just curious though Boarder....ever replace or repair a prop from impact damage?

Steering rattle is not all that uncommon. The old fix was to replace the cable malibu has since came up with what i call a rudder hammer because of its shape. It actually called a mass dampening rudder arm. It is essentially a counterweighted steering arm it darastically reduces the rattle. This is standard on 2010 models

Talk to your dealer about a mass dampening arm for the rudder it helps a ton.

I almost forgot, I am not sure when the HDS came out, but mine has it. I havn't had an issue though. Make sure you take a look at that when you have it in the water. If you don't know what it is its the box directly stern of the shaft coupling that the shaft goes through the bottom of the boat. It has had some issues, I believe mostly due to hitting something underwater. Do a search on "hydrophonic" and you will get plenty of info.

Do a search on the word "hydrophonic". Preferably when you have some time to do a little reading.

You don't have one, & be thankful. Only comes on direct drive Malibu's, it's their idea of dampening vibration. Toes, Sorry, like I said I couldn't resist. If/when you file a claim with insurance, even if the HDS checks out I'd make sure that it's noted. If it becomes a problem down the road then you'd have documentation that could link it to this event. Good advice. I have filed a claim and I will make sure that they check out and document the HDS.

You don't have one, & be thankful. Only comes on direct drive Malibu's, it's their idea of dampening vibration. Toes, Sorry, like I said I couldn't resist. If/when you file a claim with insurance, even if the HDS checks out I'd make sure that it's noted. If it becomes a problem down the road then you'd have documentation that could link it to this event.

In which case it would turn into an Aerophonic Dampening System and work equally well to quiet drive train noise.

It's not just regular water though... ...it's Hydrophonic Dampness.

Just be advised that with the new Teleflex universal sending unit the fuel gauge will be accurate but, will bounce around a lot unless the boat has been still for awhile. There is no dampening unit in the instrument cluster like there is in a car. Also, don't crank down on the screws that hold the flange into the tank, it may leak fuel.

Matt, I recently installed this Teleflex feul sender. It's an easy job but, you have to cut it down to make it work right. Now, my gas gauge does work but, the needle bounces around a lot because there isn't any dampening built into the gauge. Just so you know, gas evaporates way faster than water. If you leave your boat sitting outside during storage that gas is evaporating very quickly. Unlike a car's fuel system, that boat's gas tank is wide open to the atmosphere because of the vent. Just keep that in mind.

search hydrophonic and you will see some postings

If you filled the bilge up with water and you see it leaking out where the shaft comes through the hull its either your packing, which your local Marina just replaced, or the HDS (Hydophonic Dampening system I think) Basically its a cavity to hold water to reduce Shaft Vibration. I have heard of them leaking. Check the postings for that. I will do the same. The packing gland should drip water. like maybe a drop every 20 seconds or so.

That sounds pretty dang normal. A lot of people have the misconception that you can just floor it with speed control and the boat will sort everything out. That's true to an extent, but first it will shoot way past the set speed, then drop too far below when it over compensates to drop all of the speed. You get into a pattern that has less variance each time, but the dampening factor is no where near good enough to fix the speed right away on the first go. I've found that if I tell people to drive like Perfect Pass isn't even there, and try to drive right up to the set point, then the transition to speed control is seamless.

You don't, but it's 'hydrophonic.' Did you mean to say: "You don't, and it's hydophonic? Wow, even the grammar police can't spell right when correcting other people! Yeah, Troy!

You don't, but it's 'hydrophonic.' Did you mean to say: "You don't, and it's hydophonic? Wow, even the grammar police can't spell right when correcting other people! Yeah, Troy!

You don't, but it's 'hydrophonic.' Did you mean to say: "You don't, and it's hydophonic? Wow, even the grammar police can't spell right when correcting other people!

You don't, but it's 'hydrophonic.' Jack, now we can get you a Spelling Police avatar so you and NorCalbu can team up together. Kinda like Batman and Robin...only we definilty don't want to see either of you in tights.

You don't, but it's 'hydrophonic.' Did you mean to say: "You don't, and it's hydophonic" ?

You don't, but it's 'hydrophonic.'

For some reason our fuel gauges don't have any dampening compensation like cars do. I used to have the original sender in my boat and the needle was all over the place all day. Recently, I replaced the sender with a Teleflex unit and that's when I realized that the gauge needle will still move around while driving due to the fuel sloshing but, if you turn the key on after the boat has been steady for a while, it does give me an accurate reading now.

I have a 1993 Euro F3 that I just bought used. I have a fuel gauge that bounces from full to empty when the boat is in choppy water. Is the dampening problem most likely in the gauge or sending unit? Thanks for any help you can give. Mike

I think the motor mounts are pretty much hard mounts. I don't think there's much dampening going on. BICBW

Dampening? Interesting using "water" to dampen sound. If I recall from early science class..... and later in Vibration Theory..... water TRANSMITS vibrations very well. That's why when you put your head underwater, you can hear the spin of a propeller from a boat far far away.... sometimes you can barely see the boat with your eyes..... yet you can hear the spinning prop. Vibrations (and sound is one form of vibration) travels VERY quickly through water.... much faster than in air. So fast that your head ( a microprocesser) can NOT determine the time differential between your left ear and your right ear in order to determine the direction of the sound. You can hear the prop, but can't deterine the direction/source. Then there's "water-hammer" in our home's water pipes. Turn a tap on full, then slam it shut real fast. Or have a dishwasher that closes a valve really quickly...... it causes "water-hammer".... a VERY quick and violant vibration that sounds like a bang, and can destroy a copper pipe connection. Water transmits this vibration all along the length of the pipe. So..... HDS may have a bit of a flaw in the design concept.