'99 Sea Ray BR180 3.0 - prop free spinning?!

[Knot Tied]

Our 3.0 was going along fine.
Wakeboarding every weekend, tubing on occassion ~ running the lil 4 cyclinder hard in the fresh water lakes of South Florida.

I came from under a bridge; began to accellerate; felt like I got bucked (don't think I HIT anything) but the motor free spun.

Got in the 5' deep water, checked it out: prop fine, skeg fine, no resistance on the prop (not on).

Restarted, throttle forward, free spinning with no go.... Reverse FELT like a slight tug, then nothing ~ but we were in a slight current too.

Swam the boat back up the canal. Passed out.

IS THERE A KEY on the DRIVESHAFT of the Alpha 1 ??

The motor seems fine - tranny goes forward, reverse fine - not no motion transferred to the prop.

 

[Quint4]

Sounds like you spun the hub in the prop or your engine coupler. Engine coupler usually accompanied by burnt rubber smell.

 

[Knot Tied]

No smell .. No smoke .. just not moving ~

 

[Lazy Daze]

No key. Your prop (if OEM) has a plastic insert, instead of a hub. It's unlikely that the plastic is shot - but that's easy enough to check by pulling the prop. The other part inside the prop is a bronze (?) adapter. If that's shot, it'll be obvious as well.

My first thought is the coupler, like Dave mentioned.

Another thought would be the gears that actually do the shifting. Can you describe what's happening better? Can you feel/hear the normal "clunk" when you shift into gear? This may be done easier out of the water. When you shift into fwd or rev, do you do it quickly or gently?