Hello All,

I have searched on Google and on here over the last few days since the issue started. Let me give you a little history.

My brother and I own a 2004-2006 Style Hyperdrive with the 48" shaft. It is powered by a 23hp Vanguard. We bought the boat last year from a guy who hardly used it and it had been sitting for a few years. After some TLC it has run great for us. We put a new prop on the boat at the beginning of the season and it made a huge difference in get up and go as well as speed. This is were the problem starts...

5 trip out on the season we noticed that there was a clunking sound coming from the end of the shaft and where it meets the frame. Took the lower unit off by removing the 5 bolts holding it on and dropped it. Come to find out the bearings were shot. Not sure if the guy did regular maintenance or not but that is part of buying this used.

We are local to Mud Buddy so we took the lower unit over to Keith and he put a brand new bearing/seal kit in the lower unit and had to replace the drive line itself because of some heavy marring. The shaft looked slightly bent on the gear side when we removed it.

We got the drive line assembly back and re-installed it. We just slipped it back on and tightened the 5 bolts, opposite of how we took it off. We don't have the belt tension tester so we figured that would work since that is how it was set before. Fired the motor up in the garage and it was quiet and sounded great. Revved good and overall sounded great.

This leads us to the problem:

We took it out after installing the lower drive assembly and as soon as we put a load on it there was a struggle for it to build RPM's and would die. Take it out of the water and it would be fine, put it back in the water and will not climb rpms like it used to.

Decided to give the motor a tune up... Put new Spark Plugs RC12YC, New Fuel Filter, oil change, oil filter, and adjusted the valves back to spec (.005 Int/Exh).

Figured that should do the trick but took it back out yesterday and the same thing happened. Noticed this time that I had a 3-4" blue flame coming out of the exhaust with the occasional back fire. Took it home and last night I cleaned the carb (disassembled into the 3 main pieces and spray it all out with the carb cleaner), Rebuilt the Facet 40177 Fuel Pump since the tank is at the front of the boat, replaced most of the fuel line, installed new spark plugs again (AP3923), and drained and replaced fuel. Need to replace the main fuel line still and possibly the OEM fuel pump on the motor even though it is less than a year old.

I have not taken out the boat yet since the latest changes made last night but I am at my wits end. Could the belt be too tight cause these issues? I cant see how it can but the only variable that changed from before to after was the drive assembly and belt tension.

Unless the OEM fuel pump is shot again because I haven't replaced that yet or the long/main fuel line so both could be blocked or bad but the problem wasn't there prior to the rebuild of the drive assembly.

Sorry for the long winded rant but I wanted to give as much info as possible right out of the gate.