Prop slop

[PB1967]

I was washing my boat down after an outing today and I was wiping the throttle control down. In order to get under it I slipped it back and forth from forward to reverse. When I put it in reverse I felt some binding that I had not felt before.

I decided to hook the engine (Yamaha F115) up to the water and start it up to see if it would bind while running. I turned the engine on and slipped it into reverse. I know this is not a very good thing to do, but I only did it at idle speeds and only for a minute or two. Well, the binding went away just fine. But when the prop was in gear I heard a sound that I can only describe as something sounding kinda loose. The sound appeared to come from the lower unit. It did it in both forward and reverse. I turned the engine off with it in gear. I went to the prop and found that it has about 3/4"-1" of rotational play in it. My questions are this: is the rotational play within normal tolerences? Could the loose sound I hear just be normal sounds that I dont hear while the boat is in the water?

I have never struck anything with the prop and I do not notice any performance problems.

Thanks guys

[slief]

Not sure about the noise but if you try to put it in gear with the engines off and it does not go into gear, it is usually becuase the gears are not aligned. A simple spin of the prop will usually do the trick. As for the noise, my first guess would be an exhaust noise reverberating within the prop though I could be wrong. Can't comment about the play in the prop though it is likely normal...

[thresher15]

If you have not struck anything or had performance problems you are likely hearing something because you are now paying closer attention to it. I would say that amount of play is normal but I'd have to look at the motor. I doubt it would be caused by trying to shift it in gear with the motor off though.