Knocking - u joint or gimbal

[94essex]

So I just replaced bellows, gimbal and ujoints on an alpha 1 gen 2. Good news bellows show no signs of leaking. Alignment tool fit and rotated with no effort. U joints felt tight. Put the boat in the water and when wheel was cranked either way hard with it trimmed DOWN made a knocking sound. I trimmed it up to trailer it and turned hard either way and knocking went away. My first thought was ujoints but I would suspect knocking getting worse trimming up not better. Maybe I don't have the gimbal completely seated?

 

[Shlbyntro]

if your new ujoint are tight they will cause this. this is especially common with the "heavy duty" ujoints that are sometimes sold as replacements. if by "trimming up to the trailer" you mean that you trimmed up to the limit before having to use the trailer button, that postion actually puts less of a bind on the ujoints than all the way down and hard over.

did you just do the 2 ujoints, or the entire yoke assembly?

 

[94essex]

if your new ujoint are tight they will cause this. this is especially common with the "heavy duty" ujoints that are sometimes sold as replacements. if by "trimming up to the trailer" you mean that you trimmed up to the limit before having to use the trailer button, that postion actually puts less of a bind on the ujoints than all the way down and hard over.

did you just do the 2 ujoints, or the entire yoke assembly?

Yea it was to the limit before needing to hit the trailer button. I just replaced the two cross bearings rather then the whole assembly to save some money as the yolks looked fine. Interesting I was assuming the opposite as I knew how hard it was to run on the hose if drive wasn't trimmed down.

 

[Shlbyntro]

really the only what if, is if you distorted the pieces the the cross bearing go into when you were pressing them in amd out. you would know it if the new ujoints felt "tighter" only in certain directions.

if they feel the same in all directions, and youve verified that the gimbal is fully bottomed out, there may not be anything wrong.

In short, it is not at all uncommon for everything to be ok and still have some knocking/rattling at hard over. Ive had multiple brand new yoke assemblies do it. Obviously, Id avoid steering hard over until everything loosens up and they quit making noise.

just go back and double check everything is all I can say, but dont pull your hair out searching for something that may or may not be there.

 

[94essex]

really the only what if, is if you distorted the pieces the the cross bearing go into when you were pressing them in amd out. you would know it if the new ujoints felt "tighter" only in certain directions.

if they feel the same in all directions, and youve verified that the gimbal is fully bottomed out, there may not be anything wrong.

In short, it is not at all uncommon for everything to be ok and still have some knocking/rattling at hard over. Ive had multiple brand new yoke assemblies do it. Obviously, Id avoid steering hard over until everything loosens up and they quit making noise.

just go back and double check everything is all I can say, but dont pull your hair out searching for something that may or may not be there.

OK great thanks for the input. Next open weekend I'll pull the drive off and make sure nothing looks to noticeable. and then if everything looks fine I'll run it a few trips and see if it loosens up a bit. It ran great other then that. Ill definitely be cognizant to not over crank for a while Is there a noticeable way to tell if gimbal is fully seated other then sound? Before I put it together I checked and it felt flush is it supposed to sit further in the flush?

 

[Shlbyntro]

OK great thanks for the input. Next open weekend I'll pull the drive off and make sure nothing looks to noticeable. and then if everything looks fine I'll run it a few trips and see if it loosens up a bit. It ran great other then that. Ill definitely be cognizant to not over crank for a while Is there a noticeable way to tell if gimbal is fully seated other then sound? Before I put it together I checked and it felt flush is it supposed to sit further in the flush?

sound is honestly the best way. when you hear the crisp pop you know youre at the bottom. there should be about 1/8-1/4" of the gimbal bearings seat showing when the gimbal bearing is fully seated

 

[94essex]

sound is honestly the best way. when you hear the crisp pop you know youre at the bottom. there should be about 1/8-1/4" of the gimbal bearings seat showing when the gimbal bearing is fully seated

OK great thanks for your info I am 90 percent sure that's what it is.

 

[94essex]

Ended up being gimbal a little crooked. Was repulled and put back in straight no issues.