I was running my motor out of the water with the water muffs on and notice when i put it into gear the motor shook a little and made a rattling noise in the lower unit. I pulled the lower unit and found that the vertical shaft was worn about 5" above the water pump housing and about 2" of the shaft. any ideas what could be causing the wearing on the shaft and the rattling?

They will rattle when running in gear out of the water, there is no load on the prop. The wear may be the drive shaft bushing in mid housing.

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