Tranny troubles

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).

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.

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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 ......

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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