rktktpaul
New Member
Okay, the family and I were out on the water today just taking a nice cruise. Launched the boat in our nearest river and headed towards the locks into Lake Michigan; all told, I'd say we traveled about 10 miles up river. We didn't plan on going out on the lake, so we turned around and started heading back down river to the launch.
Since there were a couple of marinas by the locks, we idled through the no wake zones. Once we were past, I opened up the throttle. The boat started getting up on plane and speeding up when suddenly it felt like some thing started pulling the boat back while the revs started going higher. I backed off the throttle and we settled in to nice forward movement, albeit a slow one. I had been in a situation once on my brother-in-law's boat where he spun the hub inside his prop - it felt very similar.
Throttled up once more and same thing happened; boat planed out and then started slowing down while the revs climbed. I put the boat in neutral and raised the drive to see if there was anything on the prop. The prop looked clean and I was able to spin it by hand (with the engine off of course) with no problems.
Resigned that I had spun the prop, I put the boat in forward and started gradually increasing speed until I could find the point where the prop would slip; if I idled the 10 miles back to the launch, I would never have heard the end of it from my whole family. So I kept bumping up the throttle little by little, until I was past the point where I had noticed the prop start slipping before (about 2,500 rpm). Pretty soon I was cruising at my usual 3,200 - 3,400 rpm.
After passing through a couple of no wake zones, I managed to throttle up with no difficulties. I even pushed WOT a couple of times.
Now one of the things that I am remembering at the time of the problem was the smell of burning rubber. I didn't really think anything of it since there is a considerable amount of industry on the shores of the river. But after reading some posts in this section, one of the signs of a bad engine coupler is the smell of burnt rubber.
So, can anyone venture a guess as to what might have happened? I have the 4.3l V6, carburated, with an Alpha 1 drive (1.81 ratio), both with about 40 hours on them.
Since there were a couple of marinas by the locks, we idled through the no wake zones. Once we were past, I opened up the throttle. The boat started getting up on plane and speeding up when suddenly it felt like some thing started pulling the boat back while the revs started going higher. I backed off the throttle and we settled in to nice forward movement, albeit a slow one. I had been in a situation once on my brother-in-law's boat where he spun the hub inside his prop - it felt very similar.
Throttled up once more and same thing happened; boat planed out and then started slowing down while the revs climbed. I put the boat in neutral and raised the drive to see if there was anything on the prop. The prop looked clean and I was able to spin it by hand (with the engine off of course) with no problems.
Resigned that I had spun the prop, I put the boat in forward and started gradually increasing speed until I could find the point where the prop would slip; if I idled the 10 miles back to the launch, I would never have heard the end of it from my whole family. So I kept bumping up the throttle little by little, until I was past the point where I had noticed the prop start slipping before (about 2,500 rpm). Pretty soon I was cruising at my usual 3,200 - 3,400 rpm.
After passing through a couple of no wake zones, I managed to throttle up with no difficulties. I even pushed WOT a couple of times.
Now one of the things that I am remembering at the time of the problem was the smell of burning rubber. I didn't really think anything of it since there is a considerable amount of industry on the shores of the river. But after reading some posts in this section, one of the signs of a bad engine coupler is the smell of burnt rubber.
So, can anyone venture a guess as to what might have happened? I have the 4.3l V6, carburated, with an Alpha 1 drive (1.81 ratio), both with about 40 hours on them.
