Trojan Boat Forum

Last weekend I get that dreaded call from the marina... ugh. "You're boat is sitting low in the water." I accidently left the DC power off, which normally wouldn't have been an issue, except my packing box started leaking something fierce (I think it was sabatoge because it went from normal adjustment to a steady stream while sitting in the slip). Anywho, she had about 12 in. of water in the bilge that had to be pumped out. I pumped out the tranny and cooler as best as I could and re-filled, pulled and drained the starter, which was half full of water, and tightened up the packing nut back to an acceptable drippage. I took her out and first noticed that the reverse gear sounds loud, almost grinding. Then going forward, she won't get above 10 kt at full throttle and considerable vibration. Motor runs fine and revs all the way in neutral. The shaft alignment looks tight and flush all around. Where should I go from here? Also, how easily should the shaft turn when in neutral? When I was turning the shaft to inspect the alignment, I had to use a pipe wrench to turn the dang thing. Any help would be much appreciated!

try changing the fld a few times but it maybe too late try unbolting the shaft and see if the the shaft turns easly .

sounds like water in the tranny.... is the fluid milky now? how about your motor oil. Shaft alignment should not be an issue as you didn't hit anything it just got wet. check for milky oil in the main and trans.

Not to pee on yout parade, but never install a bilge switch that can be turned off... others reading this post... if your boat is floating you must have a bildge pump to move the water out if needed..... things do go wrong with a sitting boat

Good advice from Sehord - bilge pump should be direct wired to the battery and not able to be switched off. You never know when a line of some sort is going to leak or water from other sources will cause a problem.

I changed the fluid twice already. It was dark but still red. Neither times was it milky. The boat has two automatic bilge pumps, but they don't work without power and I had the main power off because I was doing some electrical work on her and forgot to turn it back on. And she has never taken on that much water in a 24 hr period so I wasn't too concerned. Guess I should have been.

I concur with the moderator's point regarding the changing out of the fluid several times. I am including an exchange of advice from a website http://www.mastercraft.com called "Team Talk" concerning water found inside a velvet drive transmission.....

SIDEWINDER - I finally have the transmission drained / changed. My intention is to launch the boat and run it until it's warmed up, check it and run for nmt 1/2 hr or so, check and change again.
TRBENJI - I hate to break it to you, but youre going to have to change it at least 5-7 times to flush all that water out. Run it in gear briefly between each change to recirculate the water through the fluid. Keep flushing until all the milkiness is gone. You'll want to buy the fluid by the gallon!


Hope this helps a little

Rick

do you have something caught on your prop/shaft? Anchor line, body and chain etc? That would cause major vibration or the (help me here guys) brace that holds your shaft to the hull. IMO shaft movement would mess up stuffing box and cause major vibration, Before you go though all that tranny labour look under the boat. It hopefully is something simple. If this is not it phone Bob at beacon.

Dave

Like the Moderator Said unbolt the shaft and you find out if its a shaft or alignment issue or a trans issue

How easily should the shaft turn?

superman3385 wrote:How easily should the shaft turn?

If there was not a issues before you had water in the hull then its issues that resulting from the water. Plain and simple. Water in the lines through out the pump in the transmission. I`m sure it did not sink enough for the prop to hit anything. So It would not be a problem with the drive shaft.

You should be able to turn it by hand . may have a slight drag . Could be hard to turn if packing is to tight ( you did just tighten it ? ) do you know how hard it was to turn before ? It could have be stiff before .

The only way to tell is unbolt the shaft and find if the trans is stiff or the shaft . If both turn easy then its most likely alignment