97 challenger 1800 drive shaft problems

[mlcrew94]

Hi everyone I just want to start out saying this is my first jet boat. So please don’t laugh too hard when I ask dumb questions. I took the boat out for the first time and the engines throttled up but I had very little forward thrust. Upon inspection I found the o-ring holding the support ring against the carbon fiber ring on the drive shaft had come out of place allowing water to shoot into the engine compartment. When I tried compressing the bellows to put the support ring and O-ring back in place I noticed I could pull my drive shaft out of the engine about an inch or so. Is that normal? With it moving I can’t seem to compress the bellow enough to put the support ring back in place. Any tips, hints, or instructions you can give me? I am assuming this is the reason I wasn’t getting any forward thrust when idling up?

 

[Dr Honda]

Sorry I missed this one.


The shaft can move back and forth. That's normal. But are you saying it's coming all the way out of the PTO end? (where it goes in the engine) or that it just slides an inch, and makes it hard to move the stainless ring?

 

[mlcrew94]

Thanks for responding! I was able to make a floating ring tool and compress the bellow enough to put the o-ring back in the groove. To answer your question though the shaft was just moving an inch or so making it hard but not coming out of the PTO end.

 

[Dr Honda]

OK... I'm guessing whoever had it apart last, didn't put the bumpers back into the driveshaft. That' makes it move more, and hard to remove the ring.

 

[mlcrew94]

That is a good possibility they said that engine was just rebuilt before I bought the boat. Thank you for all your help!