two worrisome noises
we’re in mexico now and I have a few dozen posts to add and update on this site but I’m trying to get a tan and relax and unwind some from boat work. Anyway, on the way down from san francisco I listened to our transmission making a clacking noise which may or may not be completely normal.
The audio file I am attaching to this post was recorded while sailing (motor was not running), and the gear shift is in neutral. But it makes the same sounds regardless of whether the gear shift is in forward, neutral, or reverse (it doesn’t seem to make a difference).
You will hear the whirring of the prop shaft spinning, and then you will hear a clattering/clacking noise that I can pinpoint to be coming from the transmission (not the engine or v-drive).
Does anyone have any opinion about whether this is normal, or something I should be worried about?
Now, the second noise is one that I attempted to record, unsuccessfully. It is a deeper vibration that occurs in the prop shaft as we are surfing a bit faster than average. It happens regardless of whether we are motoring, or sailing and the prop is freewheeling. I watch the prop shaft and I see no untoward deflection or vibration, to my eye at least. I suspect the noise has something to do with the cutlass bearing; I do not know what shape the cutlass bearing is in. At what point do I need to worry?