Disappointment, drive shaft disconnected

[garyholl]

Three great hours on the lake today then go to put it in drive, and nothing.
Drive shaft came disconnected and I had no propulsion.
I expect the work I had done in May is the issue. They had all that stuff off then and they proly didn't get everything back on right. They say it's proly a part issue, like the key sheared. Crap!
No lake cabin trip next weekend now.

[Kma4444]

Surely you can find someone to put a key in so you don't have to miss an entire trip!!!!! That's a pretty straight forward, quick, task. It would be terrible to miss a trip over that. It hurts my feelings. Someone in Dallas help this guy OUT!!!!

[garyholl]

Unfortunately, when it slipped down it may have damaged threads and the seal. They were talking about replacing the drive shaft. I'll know more Tuesday...

[garyholl]

It's fixed! Yay!
They replaced the driveshaft. They said something had rounded the keyway and the key was gone. Told me not to go from drive to reverse without hesitating at neutral (which I always have,) but otherwise had no idea why their repair failed. It was all free. They are including an oil change and winterize to cover our towing expense.
I'll put it in the water later today and see how it does.

[chris young]

This is something we've talked about in the past. It seems like a bit of an extravagance, but many people recommend replacing the coupling if it has to be pulled from the shaft. (These are straight couplings I'm talking about, not the tapered A.R.E) The problem being that a new coupling fits very tight, both to the shaft and the key. If you put an old one back on it may be impossible to get tight, and then a little bit of slop over time will damage the coupling, key and shaft. I'm not saying this is what happened in your case, but for my money, the extra $120 for a new coupling was well spent when I took mine apart.