120HP Electric shift propeller not spinning

[jtrew_ca]

I just recently acquired a new to me 1977 Reinell 120HP Sterndrive electric shift boat. I was told that I need to replace the throttle as it was not staying in gear. I have removed the old electric slider thingy and connected the wires to a 6 pole, 3 way toggle switch. With the key in the on position I can get the boat to go into gear, either forward or reverse and am able to rotate the propeller by hand one way and only maybe a quarter turn the other before it locks up. I assume this is because the spring takes that much to get tight enough where I can't spin it by hand.

Anyway, the issue starts when I fire up the boat( with a garden hose hooked up with enough pressure to see some water coming out) and put it in gear. The propeller doesn't spin. I very carefully tried to spin it with a piece of wood and it moved the quarter turn before not turning anymore. I have replaced the lower leg gear oil, and am hoping for some direction as to where to look next. I got maybe a quarter cup of lube out and it took a full litre of type c.

I'm not sure if the previous owner did anything to winterize the boat or closed anything that needs to be opened for it to work properly. I recently bought the SELOC manual and am hoping to get to trying to verify that I am getting the full power needed at the motor when engaging gear to rule out a bad wire between the throttle and the motor, but I think that if it's going into gear then the wires should be ok. Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[southkogs]

Welcome aboard:

Are you getting good voltage on your shift wires?

 

[jtrew_ca]

I believe so, just bought a multimeter tonight and verified that I am getting 12volts for forward and reverse, but ran out of light tonight to verify the continuity of the wires. I am hoping to check that tomorrow and hopefully fire it up and see some movement.

 

[jtrew_ca]

ran out of time tonight, but did check the voltage at the throttle switch and back on the engine and was getting a consistent 10.5ish for voltage. Would the continuity test show anything different with me getting the correct voltages? I re-wired the throttle switch to a 6 pol DPDT switch, is there a kill switch on the electric shift? If so, would it kill the motor, or just being in gear? Being new to the whole electric shift boat world I want to try all the "easy" checks first before pulling the lower leg off to check the coils. If it gets down to that, what do I have to do with the parts as the come out and what would I need to do with the upper since my boat is sitting on my driveway?

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

disconnect the blue and green wires at the knife connectors behind the engine there. each wire going down into the drive should read 4 to 7 ohms referencing battery negative or other good ground.

 

[jtrew_ca]

getting 6.1 ohms on both...once the kids are awake I will fire up the engine and verify the ball gears are moving even in neutral. Will let you know what that turns up.

 

[jtrew_ca]

well the ball gears are spinning when the motor is running. What is my next step?

 

[southkogs]

My next suspect would be the lower unit, in which case I'm useless to ya'. I've never opened one.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

could be the commonly stripped splines on the water pump impeller shaft. You want to change the impeller anyways on any new-to-you boat, so that will get you in a bit closer to things near the lower unit..

 

[jtrew_ca]

No Title

Well I got the water pump off and all the splines look good, but when I started to clean out around the splines to the lower leg to see their condition about and inch broke off. Or I think it is broken. Please see the pictures and let me know if this is in fact broken and what the part is actually called so I can search it out.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

that's the shaft that puts power into your lower unit. It broke because something piled up inside the lower (or the prop hit a rock- hard) . You need to disassemble and evaluate/rebuild the lower unit, or you need to source a new or used lower unit.

when a shaft breaks at it's weakest spot the way yours did, the problem is not that shaft. The shaft is collateral damage.

 

[jtrew_ca]

When you say piled up, what could that entail? The lower had almost no gear lube in it when I drained it prior to this and after I filled it with type C it was engaging in gear so I don't think the hubs and springs are shot. If both forward and reverse engaged at the same time would this break the drive shaft or just ruin the springs?

 

[jtrew_ca]

Also, on a side question...how hard should it be to turn the ball gears on the upper section of the leg? I have it(the section with the water pump) off and can't turn the ball gears at all by hand.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Get a OEM manual and take your lower unit apart and look inside it. You can't replace that broken part without disassembling the lower completely.

 

[jtrew_ca]

I have the manual already. A shop here quoted me $700 to replace the drive shaft, but I have found a whole lower that matches for less. Just trying to determine the best route for me. If it's just the drive shaft, I am thinking of replacing it myself as per the manual, but I don't want to replace it and have the "new" one break on me too.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Power starts at the engine, not the prop. That shaft broke because of something in the lower, or because of a prop strike. The engine provided the torque to break it. That's all there is to really discuss until someone invests the time to disassemble the lower unit and inspect the parts.
A quote at this point is worthless. You need a quote to make the lower unit good again, not a quote to replace one part.

 

[boobie]

If you get current to both the forward and reverse shift coils at the same time you could create this problem. Is your toggle switch wired correctly ??

 

[jtrew_ca]

I believe so, when I have the key turned, but the engine not running and engage it to forward gear the propeller only turns the one way and when I put in it reverse it turns the other way. I also tested at the knife connections going into the leg and got the correct measurements when in forward and reverse. I will double check everything when I get the driveshaft replaced prior to running it.

 

[boobie]

Keep us posted.