Tranny troubles

[canadianpride]

Well here it is in a nutshell. We were out on the lake and having a great day when suddenly all went from good to bad. I was at a stand still and put the boat in gear, accelerated out of the hole and heard a ping sound, stopped the boat but everything seemed ok, so I continued across the lake. One minute later I lost my tranny! Got boat towed in and trailered the boat to a mechanic. What he found was a piece if the tranny case had cracked and popped off, causing it To lose all the fluid into the hull, and piled up the transmission. He says there is a few things that could have contributed to this fail, vibration, low fluid, overheated, ect ect. Has this happened to anyone else? What suggestions for repairs? I'm thinking this is going to be very costly, so any insight would be appreciated.

[trayson]

I would look into the price of a new transmission from www.skidim.com

I know mine would have been $1500. But yours is a vdrive and I don't know what tranny you'd have...

[DAFF]

Pull the trans and find the piece which pooped off. I bet the internals are fine you just need the piece welded back on. It might work and it might not, one thing is for sure the weld repair will be a fraction of the cost of replacing the trans. There are some very talented welders out there, cast metal should be easy for one of these guys.

[wotan2525]

Agree with DAFF. Any engine machine shop should be able to repair it for you and I'd buy a rebuild kit and take it in there with it. Have them do the seals/bearings and inspect the gears. Will certainly be cheaper than replacement.

[trayson]

That depends. On mine, the rebuild and seal kits were about $500 total from Skidim. But that didn't include stuff like the needle bearings or any of the special tools to be able to service it (pullers and stuff referenced in the service manual). A rebuild on mine was $900 from Fantastic Finishes marine in Medina Ohio. You can ship a tranny UPS or Fedex ground. They turned it around in 3 business days. A new transmission would have been $1500 for mine. I got a crazy good deal on shipping through my work. If you have to get your tranny welded, then pay to have it rebuilt, and shipping, you're probably getting closer to the price of a new one, with easily 3 weeks of downtime.

I had a bitch of a time finding anyone that was willing to even touch a marine tranny.

[canadianpride]

Well i finally got the family home from the lake last night and got time to look into my problem. So i believe after getting in there, that the mechanic i had look at the boat at the lake never had a flipping clue. i dug into the situation tonight on my own because i find it hard to believe the tranny was piled up, and what i found was the piece of cast that he had found actually came from the side of the bell housing as i would call it, and the transmission and v-drive was totally fine. everything moves in tune just as it should. so i think my shaft sheared where the transmission connects to the motor. im wondering if this is a spline, shear pin, or key way where they meet? so what ever snaped must have hit the housing right infront of the starter causing the piece to get busted off. so any info on this connection would be appriciated. and also thanks for all the quick repies this group of supra members have helped me more than once and continue to entertain me.

[wotan2525]

I think we'll need photos to help. I'm having a hard time picturing what is broken....

[CornRickey]

so what was the fluid? regardless of if things turn by hand, if they were run dry ( tranni or engine) your looking at a rebuild.

[trayson]

I think we'll need photos to help. I'm having a hard time picturing what is broken....

Pics are always good. But bellhousings can be replaced.


so what was the fluid? regardless of if things turn by hand, if they were run dry ( tranni or engine) your looking at a rebuild.

^^^^ THIS.

[Kma4444]

Damper plate broke?

[trayson]

I would imagine that the method to couple your v-drive transmission would be a similar concept to my direct drive. So, here's what I'd expect:

On the back of the engine, there's a flywheel bolted on. Bolted to the flywheel, there's a damper plate (basically looks like a clutch with no friction material). In the center of the damper plate, there's a splined hole. This is where the input shaft of the transmission goes through. The transmission bolts to the bell housing that surrounds the whole flywheel/damper plate assembly, and there's a metal dust cover on the back of it all that the starter goes through a hole in to connect to the ring gear on the flywheel.

So, Your theory is that the damper plate broke and threw a piece of something (maybe one of the springs)? through the bellhousing. If that's the case, then I wouldn't understand what made all your fluid take a dump into the bilge. The tranny is sealed on both the input and output sides, so tell us where you lost the fluid from.

Again, pics and a better description would help us help you. (like what transmission do you have?)

For what it's worth, a V-drive tranmission is going to cost around $2500 at Skidim (whereas my Direct drive tranny is priced at "only" $1500 new).

[canadianpride]

so these are a few pics of where i was taking about, the starter is bolted on at the back side of where the break is. My tranny is a ZF hurth marine (ZF 45 CW)
The fluid that the mechanic told me was in the hull was nothing more than h2o with maybe a skim of oil on it. long story short he was an absolute idiot and didn't know what he was even looking for. tranny fluid is full, so is the v-drive fluid. i found this piece of spring metal in the gapping hole of my bell housing,Im guessing it has something do do with the broken housing as well. i also ran a magnet into the bottom of the tranny and v-drive and got no filings what so ever.

12889128871288712888

[DAFF]

Looks like the dampener plate blew apart got lodged and blew out the side of the bell housing. I would pull the trans and have a peak inside, my bet it is an EZ fix ......

[Kma4444]

Pretty good clue there in the last pic with the piece of a spring laying in the bilge. No doubt it's damper plate related. That's very good news for you assuming there's no serious collateral damage.

[wotan2525]

These guys are all on the right track. Damper plate failure. You'll need to have the tranny pulled to fix it. I would try and get an engine/machine shop to fix the case, but even if you dont, I doubt it's a big deal. I'd also take the time to replace the seal on that side of the transmission since it may have sucked up some metal bits.

[kevkev]

When I rebuilt my transmission this past winter I ordered a new dampener plate while I had it all torn down. When the new one came in it was different than the one I pulled off. I asked the dealer if it was the correct plate and they informed me that they had upgraded it due to the rubber core coming apart over time. The new one is all steel so hopefully it will last a lot longer. I'm not sure if yours is the same rubber core style but hopefully they have an upgraded one for yours as well so this doesn't happen again. Removing the transmission is not too bad of a chore so don't be discouraged if you are planning on doing the labor yourself.

[canadianpride]

So got the boat to my supra dealer and the are finally looking at this. He told me exactly what we more or less new, the dampner plate and that's what would have broke the bell housing. He tells me they have to pull the entire motor to change out the bell housing and plate. Is this true has anyone gone this far without pulling motor? He claims min of 12 shop hrs to get this out! Any one have any thoughts on this? He said also that he is waiting on price of bell housing from indamar! So I sit and wait! Wish I was on the water.

[villain]

Ok so I work for a tige dealer as a tech. You DO NOT have to pull the motor to pull a tranny. Out of any boat dd or vd. That should be a 6 hour job at the most. And that is if nothing goes right. If that came through my shop it would be 2.5 hours for a dd and about 3.5-4.5 hours for a vd depending on what the interior is like to remove the back seat. That quote is ridiculous. Take it to another shop or pick up some tools and change it yourself. It really is an easy fox as long as you have common sense.

[crystal waters]

had my damper plate replaced last year on DD . 3.5 hours at the mechanics.

[DAFF]

Trying to make your boat into a make work project.... RUN !!!!!