98 Super Sport VDrive Noise

Hi, I have a 98 Super Sport GT40 with 1350 hours. Boat runs like a clock, but towards the end of the season I noticed a "tap, tap, tap" coming when I was in gear. Forward or Reverse. It went away as soon as I put the boat in neutral. The sound increased in tempo when I increased throttle, it seemed to increase at a constant with the rpm of the motor. I didn't manage to pull the floor and get a good inspection before she came out for the season, so I can't say 100% its the V-Drive, but its coming from that Tranny/Drive area. Boat has not been hit, lives on a lift during the summer. The sound seems to continue as I increase RPM onto to plane, it sounds like that "tap" keeps going until I can't tell the difference from the other motor noise.

I've spoken to Walter, they were not too helpful, just told me to ship the drive to them. So I drained the oil and checked the magnets. Magnets had only very fine dust on them, to be expected since it has been 2 summers since a drive oil change. I found a few small shavings of metal in the bottom of the drained oil (its almost impossible to get that drained in a clean way) These were small flakes of silver, 3/16" long at most.

I have pulled the V-Drive and opened the pan and the gears look perfect. There is zero play in the bearings I can rotate, it all looks good. I have a mirror in and no teeth at damaged or look any way worn. I did get a few more shavings out of the inner area with a magnet on a stick. So this makes it hard for me to say this is where the noise is coming from... I did notice I use a small amount of fluid the past few seasons, but I took that as a leaking gasket as I've read a lot about on this site. So this is the time to fix that, but I never let it get below the bottom mark. I check every day when I open my ballast valves.

There is a splined shaft coming from the transmission/reverse gear. That shaft sticks out about 3-4". It goes through a seal mounted on the VDrive. That shaft has the slightest play up and down, just a hair. It doesn't move in and out (inline with the crank) It spins smooth when I turn but its hard to really get it moving. I do notice tranny fluid is a little low, but that is with the boat cold on the trailer. (I dont know why it was low, I doubt, but could that be the cause?)

I have read Damper plate is common area of noise, but read that should make sound in Neutral as well, and a rattling spring would sound like that and not be a uniform tempo "tap" The folks at Skidim talked to me a while about this and they said they almost never have issues with Walter drives and he was really surprised I was thinking that.

The slight play in the shaft coming from the reverse gear concerns me. I have not removed that section yet, it was a large enough assignment to pull the V Drive solo!

The Walter refresh kit is pretty costly and getting it across the border into Ontario is going to be even worse so I want to put this out to the group before I commit. Shes been a great boat and if that's what she needs then I'm doing it, but based on what I've seen from opening the drive I am not convinced. I would rather work on this over the winter than lose precious time during the summer months!

Can anyone lend some advice? Has anyone chased this around before and can help point me the right way?
Thanks

Thanks for the tip.
Off the shelf,.. meaning I could source them locally instead?

Will get the U-Joint and drive parts. Is there anything to be worried about with the slight play in the shaft from the tranny/reverse gear?