Hey guys had my Gladiator out on Saturday and Sunday and noticed on the second day the Starboard out drive was chattering when the boat was in neutral. If i put the boat in gear it would go away. We rebuilt the drive last summer and i doubt it has 20 hours on it. I am always easy out of the hole and the boat is typically driven pretty easy with an occasional high rpm blast, no wave jumping, and usually just runs around on a 3k rpm cruise. I change the oil often and my magnets/oil were very clean. Took off the top cap and the little bit of gear i could see looked ok, with very little polishing going on. Although the top gear seemed to have more play than normal if you tried to move the top gear while it was still on the drive. I don't remember exactly how much play they have with the top cap off, but if felt like it almost wanted to come out. I didn't do any prying and just put the top cap back on, but i could pull with my hand and do a considerable amount of movement. These are XR sweptback's with shorties. Any help would be appreciated. A couple of times the boat has been dropped into gear above 800 rpm i know this is hard on them and it was by accident in some windy docking situations along with some idle problems.

Peter,
when the drive is in neutral, the shift fork is bouncing up and down as the offset space between the gears goes up and down as they rotate. Sometimes you can hear this rattle and it is unnerving. If you see no metal on the magnets, I would run it. With the top cap off, the top gear has nothing to press against, so it seems very loose. With the top cap on and the back cap off, you can feel the lash in both driven gears.
Next time running, or better yet on the hose, put your hand on top of both drives at an idle and in neutral. You can feel that shift fork bouncing usually. Let us know what you find..
Hope that helps

Dick

When I had my new xr's installed last year, one of the drives did the same chattering when in neutral when we first fired up the engines. My tech performed a simple shift linkage adjustment on the offending drive and that completely solved the problem, it never chattered again.

Thanks Dick,

I could feel the chattering with my hand on the case, but the other drive did not. I hate to take a chance and let this thing go and then have a much larger repair bill. These drives have N/A 700's in front of them. Do you think its worth a tear down just for piece of mind??? Or is that something that is completely normal and wont affect the longevity of the drive?

It won't hurt to check the linkage adjustment to see if that helps. But I think it is the nature of the beast. So long as the linkage is centered and does not go too deep, then it won't do any damage that I have seen. I ran that drive that way for a lot of hours and the gears are still good. I just never paid attention to it after I first noticed it and found out what it was. It won't hurt to pull the back cap to make sure the linkage and detent ball are intact. Another thing to check is the timing of the gears. Hard to see with the fork in the way, but the + and - should line up right at the center of the shift rod. There are two marks on the back of the case. One gear is one the high side and the other on the low side when they spin the space stays the same, but moves up and down.
I never tried to get rid of it.. on my drive. But I only had one on the back of the boat, not another one next to it to compare it to.
I would look to see if everything looks good, and the linkage adjustment. After that I would keep and ear on it..
I dont mean to steer you wrong, but if the linkage adjust doesnt help. Then I wouldn't get too worried about it. Unless some one else has seen it turn into a problem, down the road.
Hope that helps.
Dick