Bravo III problem

[charlg]

First time out, and I only got about 100 yards! I felt a vibration, and then something let loose and I only had nuetral. The shifter will move to forward, but it is hard, and it won't move to reverse. There does not seem to be any obvious solutions - cable are in tact. Is my lower unit gone?

I typically have my wife circle while I park the trailer. This time she ran the boat for about five minutes with the motor up in the trailering position. Could that have caused the problem?

Any help would be appreciated. I can't even get it looked at until next week. There goes the 80 degree day that I took the day off from work for. :smt089 :smt013

 

[Dave S]

Charlie........sorry to hear about your problems. It could be several things that might be the problem but rather than speculate I think you should let your dealer look at.

Just for the record, when your motor is running, the drive shaft and u-joints are rotating as well.......even in neutral. So if your outdrive is in the trailer postion, this puts them under undue strain because of the severe angle you have with the OD up. It's just a good idea to drop the outdrive down all the way (or at least partially) before firing up the engine.

Let us know what the dealer finds and once again we are sorry to hear about your trouble. :smt009

 

[charlg]

Should I be worried that this might cost thousands????

 

[out-n-aboat]

You could have somethings simple as fishing line caught in the prop. It more sounds like a shift cable to me. Lets us no what your dealer says.

 

[dr.j]

Charlie,
Pull the lower unit. I suspect u joint or gimble problem. Running with the leg fully up compounded with turns would place extreme force on the moving drive parts.

dave

 

[charlg]

I was able to get it in today. The mechanic said that the shaft coming out of the back of the engine was not spinning. They are going to pull the outdrive and let me know what the damage is. It doesn't look good.

 

[dr.j]

Charlie,

sound like the coupler. On the fly wheel is a plate that has the coupler that the input shaft of the lower unit slides into. It resembles a soup bowl filled with rubber and a female collar that mates to the shaft. If the engine is running and the input shaft is not turning, the coupler is stripped. Usually requires the engine to be pulled in order to replace the entire assembly. A misaligned engine will cause the coupler to wear. Depending on the year of the boat I would say warranty time.

dave

 

[skolbe]

Coupler or shift cable - vibration would lean more toward the coupler. I have been through both issues - hard shifting would be the cables. Definitely mechanic time.

 

[charlg]

The mechanic did mention a coupler, but also said the outdrive has to be removed and possibly the engine? Does that sound right? He won't know for sure until he diges in. I guess I'll wait till next year for a GPS.

Any insight to what may have caused this, so I can prevent it from happening again? I've only owned the boat since last August....I used it a few times and then wrapped her up. But I am guilty of trimming up high because of the shallow water where I launch (Charles River). Also, could the previous owner had known that this was coming? :smt018

 

[charlg]

Charlie,

Depending on the year of the boat I would say warranty time.

dave

Dave,

I called Sea Ray to see if the previous owner had puchased an extended warranty....he did not. What, if any, is the warranty on something like this.

Thanks.

 

[dr.j]

Charlie,
If it is the coupler it is doubtfull that they will be able to remove it from the fly wheel without lifting the engine out. Mind you having said this, I had a 90 Cadorette and their was enough room to remove and install a new coupler. After the 2nd one failed they changed the engine allignment and third one lasted 8 plus years. Some are of the mind that you do not have to remove the leg, inspect and grease the input shaft however I do it every fall as part of the winterize. The u joints used to have grease nipples but the newer legs do not however the shaft still requires lub. Some couplers have a grease nipple and you will have to stand on your head to get to it. I doubt the previous owner had any idea this was coming especially if you had a trouble free last season. The coupler may slip but only for a short while and in both cases with mine I was given no warning; everything was fine till I slipped it into gear after backing from the dock and wammo! no forward or reverse.

dave

 

[Dave M.]

I typically have my wife circle while I park the trailer. This time she ran the boat for about five minutes with the motor up in the trailering position. Could that have caused the problem?

Charlie, take at look here at Wikipedia. You will see for a universal joint, the output shaft speed is not the same as the input shaft speed when the joint as at an angle. The output shaft speeds up and slows down every half turn. The more the angle, the worse it is. This puts stress on the drive shaft parts on both sides of the joint, trying to change output shaft speed twice per rotation.

In my opinion, you should not run your engine above the cutout point on your engine trim switch. You especially should not run it in the full up position, and you should not start it there. An engine, especially carbureted, will rev up when it starts, because you are giving it some throttle. So I think you should lower the engine until it is below the trailer cutout position of the trim switch. Then start it. After that, if you need to have it higher, run the engine only very slowly, and only trim up the minimum amount required.

As you can see from the graph in the links above, there is no point where it changes from 'no problem' to 'problem'. It gets progressively worse as you increase the angle, and gets worse faster at large angles. This means the trim switch cutout point for raising the drive is only a guide. It is not fine to always run trimmed that far up, but then think you can never go above that. It is a matter of degree. And I would expect the wear and tear to be cumulative.

 

[charlg]

Dave,
Very good information. Thanks. More boaters should know this. I have always been too concerned about damaging the prop, so I cruise with the trim too high. It's going to be an expensive lesson.

 

[chuck1]

Personally I try to not run over 6 or 7 on the trim setting. Most of the time at 4 or 5 on my 240SD.

 

[Dave M.]

Charlie, you are welcome. That is a pretty boat, and I hope you are back in the water soon.

 

[dr.j]

The recommended trim setting outward is 21 3/4 inches. Fully trimmed up, measure the distance between the two mounting pins of the trim cylinder (center to center). It should not exceed the 21 and 3/4 measurement. Quite a difference from the fully up position in the trailer mode.

 

[charlg]

So far, it is $700 in parts (coupler, etc) and they haven't even taken the outdrive off yet!!

My question is this.....will it be as good as new with the repair? I'm getting worried that I may spend a lot of money (not that I have a choice), but may have more problems with this down the road.

 

[dr.j]

Tell them you want the engine allignment to be dead on! Allignment tool should slip in as nicely as a ??? Keep the trim down to a reasonable level, keep the shaft lub'd and the stern in the water while flying across the 3 footers. Installed properly it should last for the life of the boat. As I said earlier, I replaced two and the third lasted over 1200 hours.

 

[Dave S]

Dave,
Very good information. Thanks. More boaters should know this. I have always been too concerned about damaging the prop, so I cruise with the trim too high. It's going to be an expensive lesson.

240SDs require very little trim to run properly. Once I had mine set, I left it alone.

 

[PHXATC]

I had the same situation.

Purchased the boat in August, took it in after 2 trips on the lake for a "once over" and they found the coupler was about to give out. OK, $1500 later (give or take $100) and the coupler was renewed. They had to pull the engine and drop the drive.

My guys said that they only way to prevent that is to properly align the engine/drive combo and drop the outdrive EVERY year to service it by greasing it inside there. Evidently there is a grease zerk that you can only get to by dropping the outdrive (taking it completely off). My guess is the last owner didn't want to pay the extra $100 or so to completely pull the outdrive off when he had it serviced...hence the failure.

It's only money, you'll make more.

Toby