[tedmonson]

I have a 1998 31 open. I haven't ran the boat much.  Picked it up 2 years ago and as you guys may know we had a hurricane in 2022 here in Fort Myers  that killed another year so it's been pretty slow going getting everything back together but now when I put the boat in forward both engines make a squealing noise. At first I thought it was the belts replaced. All the belts belts are good but the noise still comes when I put it in forward when RPMs are low as I raise up the RPMs gradually the noise goes away so I'm not sure where this might be coming from.  Check the transmission fluid. It looks good. Very clean. I don't think there's any issues there, but I'm worried that it might be coming from the the box where the shaft is connected.

[Livvy Brynn]

Do you have dripless shafts? Could be that there is no water getting to the seals. There is typically a t off the raw water system that feeds them. Mine were clogged up one time and the mechanic replaced the hoses. I was told this can cause a squeal. If I remember correctly both seals were fed off of one motor so that could explain both motors making noise at same time.

[RMS]

On the gas 1997 31 footer I previously owned, each dripless seal was fed raw water off an exhaust riser. Scale from inside the riser would clog the orifice. Each spring I would disconnect the small diameter hose at the riser and remove the barbed fitting. Clean it out thoroughly and reinstall. To verify water was making it to the seal you can remove the hose at the shaft gland and verify it is pumping with the engine running. Or if the vessel is on the hard, look for moisture near the shaft tube under the boat after running the engine. Bob