What is this metal sheet for?

[Ric.H]

Hi everybody,

I am new to this forum and would like to ask for help.
A friend of mine has a boat with an BMW diesel engine and a jet drive. The attached picture shows the view from the bottom side of the jet drive. You can see the driveshaft and above a damaged metal sheet. It was fixed with 4 screws and it is partially covered with rubber material. Does anybody know what it is or better was good for? We removed it now because it touched the shaft. Can we remove it totally or do we need it?
Any help is appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

Richard

this was was a blanking off plate, it is not so clear in pic, some jets had an air bleed to stop the drive from creeping ahead and astern at the dock, I dont think this is one, take it off, it has been doing nothing anyways

[Ric.H]

Thank you for your answer. We already took it off and I don't think there will be any problems without it. But I am curious what it was for?
I made some more photos, if you are intrested I could post them. The jet drive is a PP Jet 115 (written in the type plate) with an 5 cylinder diesel engine made by BMW. Seems to a very uncommon combination. :-)
Thank you again.