Help with gears

Hello,

I have a 1992 Johnson 60 hp (VJ60TLENE). I change my gear oil a couple of times a year because the boat gets used heavily. Most of the time it just has some powder on the magnet but this time there was a chunk, I did hit a stump a little while ago and checked it and there was a small chunk, I?m hoping this new one was just a fragment that broke off later and not a new ding in the gears. I know this is bad and can mean your gears are on their way out. One question that people keep asking me is "does it jump out of gear?" I'm not sure to be honest. So here goes the stupid question, how do you tell if it jumps out of gear? Does that mean you have to pull it back into neutral and reset it? or does that mean it just idles high than goes back in? Also is loss of speed a possible cause of this? I lost about 6mph over last year but I also put a hydrofoil on it and switched to 87 gas instead of 92. Thanks for your help!

Re: Help with gears

of course that is a really bad sign. I don't think you'd notice much of a loss in speed though. Those whale tails do put more drag on the motor and slow you down a bit. the 92 to 87 octane thing shouldn't have any affect at all.

As to the jumping out of gear thing, it usually occurs at wide open throttle or when you're trying to plane out and there's a big load on the prop. It will feel like you hit a small or even good sized stump when it jumps out of gear. Sometimes it will throw it back in neutral and the motor will rev up like crazy but sometimes it will catch the gear ears again and keep going. If it's doing that, it will only get worse. If it's spitting chunks, you may need to take it apart and hopefully salvage some of the gears and such---they're not cheap!

Sorry for the bad news,
JBJ

Re: Help with gears

Believe me you will know it if it jumps out of gear from a beat up clutch dog. Are you sure you really did hit a stump? That's what it feels like when it jumps from the dog.