Boat Vibration!!! Help

Was out boarding today and one of my friends was pulling me. He stopped all of a sudden and said that it sounded like the boat was bogging down and was sounding funny. So I climb in the boat and started down the lake. It has a really bad vibration and gets worse the faster you go. Took it out of the water and the prop looks fine! No dents, dings or anything. Anyone have any ideas what could be the problem?

the boat is and 04 X2

sounds like you struck some debris? log, wood, branch, submerged something or other? either way, propshaft or strut could be bent or out of alignment.. also, don't count out the prop, it could be out of balance just enough for the human eye to not detect and make that vibration as well..

(Message edited by h20jnky on May 25, 2008)

We just did this to the wakesetter yesterday. Thrashed up the just prop, or so we thought at first. However when out of the water and the prop wouldn't spin, we knew we had a worse problem. The strut hit along with the prop and put a nice bend into it. We got it all removed, but it took a while to get the strut off. We had the exact same vibration you were talking about. We could easily see ours was bent, if you're getting that bad of a vibration, you should be able to see it if you have a bent strut

Out of balance prop would do it too, even if you cant see any problems with your eyes, take it to a shop and have them balance it or at least see how out of balance you are, if any

You'll sometimes get the vibration from weeds around the prop. They're often cleared by reverse.

Sounds like your prop and yes sometimes you cant see the bend in the prop until you remove the prop, it dosent take much.

can you take the prop off and back it in the water on the trailer? give it gas, and if there is no vibration then it would more than likely be the prop, is this ok to try?

I woulden't do that, I would take the boat to the dealer or a prop shop and have them pull the prop off and check it out.

We had vibration like that when we collected an old fishing net that had broken away at some stage, it was wrapped up in behind the prop (ours is an IO, so a bit different to your boat) but you can no doubt tell whether your prop is clear or not.

But, it was only noticable at low speeds and went away at once we got on plane, so it sounds like you have bent something rather than got something stuck in there...

(Message edited by jtnz on May 26, 2008)

Could it be anything major in the motor that would cause it to do that? I just changed the oil 2 days ago and that kinda has me nervous. I checked the oil and everything looked good. I just hope it is nothing major

If you can spin your prop, its not a shaft problem, but that wouldn't rule out something else, like a bearing, being wallowed out. If you can't spin your prop by hand, your shaft has an issue

A (good) shop can measure the amount of runout on your shaft without removing it, they can also check your prop. You might also try removing one plug wire at a time if it is idling rough, see if you have a bad plug or wire.

The prop spins by hand no problem. So does that rule out a bent shaft?

Make sure it's not the engine by lowering the boat into the water and dis-engaging the transmission while you give it throttle. If you still get vibration you know its something with the engine.

I just had a similar issue with vibration, which I thought was the prop. Turns out I had some bad sparks plugs that were misfiring (no gap). During acceleration it seems like a vibration being caused by the prop but it really just was the misbalance of the engine not having the correct opposing cylinders firing.

How do you dis-engage the transmission? never done this before

disengage transmission by pulling/pushing the neutral knob on your morse control.. give it a little pepper in reverse position, if you get the same vibration, it is not prop..

(Message edited by h20jnky on May 27, 2008)

sounds like you might have a dead cyl. bad plug wire, spark plug or fuel injector issue.