Hello all. First off the stats: 1985 Larson 19 foot open bow with 3.8 V6 with and Alpha one with a 15X16" 4 blade aluminum prop. 3 weeks ago at the lake, the boat started shifting late, as in the motor was revving before it went into gear and it would clunk into gear hard, rpms were about 2k before it would go into gear. I checked the oil in the stern drive and found it to be a little low. I added about 3 oz of gear oil. Went out yesterday and it seemed to shift a little better but was still revving before shifting. I was pulling a tube with 2 10 year old boys less than 200# between them and the tube at around 13 or 14 mph. everything was running smooth. Motor was holding rpms good, then it sounded like the boat cavitated and the engine over revved. I drive with hand on the throttle all the time so I immediately backed off the throttle and put it in neutral. Then the bad news. Tried to put it back in gear. Motor revs but the boat don?t go. No forward no reverse. Shut off the boat. Put it in gear forward and spun the prop. Easy one way hard the other. Same thing in reverse, just opposite easy and hard. Got a tow back to the boat dock and loaded up with 2/3 of the day still left. What is typical in this situation of what broke? Why would the prop still be hard to turn in gear but it won?t engage into forward or reverse? I posted this a couple of weeks ago but I didn?t get any response. Any ideas?
