Operating boat with a bad drive plate

Ok, a few weeks ago I posted on here about a strange noise coming from my engine. http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=799759

The general consensus was that the drive plate was making the noise. My question is how bad is it to keep using the boat with a bad drive plate? I have not had the boat in the water since the noise began but I am really getting antzy about getting some pulls before the season is completely over.

I realize the best thing to do is just fix the boat but unfortunately I'm not currently over flowing with moneys and was going to wait until spring to fix the problem. Also I should point out that it has not been confirmed that the noise was coming from the drive plate and could potentially be coming from somewhere else.

thanks again for the help

Tough call. I thought I had that problem on my nautique and found this article saying "Be assured that this is a noise issue only,
absolutely no adverse wear or damage is occurring in the drive train or engine." But yours could be something different. Then I found out it was the prop hitting my boat lift and I don't even have the problem.

If it was me I would go out and try to quit worrying about it until it get's worse.

I known a few with damper plate failures.. They ran it until it completed it's crack through. then the motor spun with nothing on the other end.. It didn't do anymore damage because it's all contained in the bell-housing.. But it made a hell of a racket.. It's a toss up..

It would be a very rare case for a failed damper plate to damage anything else. It would have to be quite explosive and perhaps have large chunks lodged between the block and flywheel. Typically the springs break and tear up the drive plate without damaging anything else. When it completely fails it will not spin the trans input shaft with any load on it, so bring a paddle or two. If it's not terribly noisy yet and you're just trying to get out a few more times this season I'd run it as is and do the job when you're done for the season. not sure what boat we're talking about but if it's a DD it should be an easy job under a day of work so long as you have a setup to lift the engine. If it's a vdrive, well... Have fun with that because it'll be tight and take twice as long.

Also think about any "while I've got the engine out" things to do. At the least clean your bilge well under the engine. If motor mounts or engine are starting to rust clean and paint them, check oil pan condition (rust, thin, etc.), consider an oil drain hose instead of plug if you don't already have one or if you have one inspect condition and replace if in doubt, check rear main seal for any sign of leakage, check trans input shaft seal for signs of leakage, if engine is high hours (1000+) you may want to pull the pan and inspect bearings, etc... This is all cheap and easy while you have the engine out but either not worth doing or very labor intensive if just pulling it for one of these things alone.

i had a buddy with an '05 x-star that had a flex plate explode actually taking out the bellhousing as well as the starter. that could be the extent of the possible damage although it would be rare i think.

Very rare but flywheel and flexplate explosions do happen from time to time. Typically flywheel explosions are the result of a clutch genading, which of course we don't have in boats. Clutch components insufficient for the HP or RPM are typical causes. Also high RPM can result in an exploded flywheel or flexplate, primarily from cheaping out on these components in high RPM engines and not getting parts rate for the RPM.

I'm curious though as to which engine manufacturer uses a flex plate in a marine application? The handful of marine engines, both I/O and inboard, I've had apart have all had flywheels. Not sure why but I assumed for a larger/stronger flat surface for the coupler or damper plate to mount to and avoid flexing. Anyone know why they would opt for a flexplate over a flywheel, aside from cost?

Cory, Its a muddling of terms from auto to marine.
All inboard marine engines use a heavy balanced flywheel. Bolted to the flywheel is a dampener or "drive plate" > called flex plate incorrectly by some on here. This drive plate has a splined center hub to receive the reversing gear input shaft and is also fitted with either springs or rubber blocks around the center section to absorb shock loads.
Most use springs and when they (the springs) break, they rattle.