Walter V drive woes!

Hi all,

Second time out in the new toy (2001 Super air nautique, PCM 5.8 GTO, Walter v-drive). Felt a vibration when accelerating (4 on board, no skier) iimediatley after exiting the no wake zone and only at high revs. Took it back to the dock and sometime later when I tried to start the boat the 'ignition beep' would not stop. I pulled the hatches on the vdrive and seemed to hear an intermitent 'clatter' or knocking from the vdrive. Panic time!

Went to start the boat to put it on the trailer and the battery was flat. Swapped it with the spare and beeping stopped but not straight away.

All guages were good and no check engine light. Vdrive light went out after 1200rpm (as it should) on a small 'test drive' after replacing the battery. My instant reaction was 'oh s*** - new gearbox $$$$$$$????????' but after reading a bit online when i got home I seem to see the damper plate popping up as a potential cause for tranny knocking. I checked the prop in the drive way and it seems to have had a bend on one of the blades but I'm not sure what I hit but if I did it was def at low speed, maybe round the slip somewhere - had no feeling of hitting anything at all before accelerating and feeling the vibration for the first time. In total the boat was driven for less than a few minutes.

Anyways, she's going in on monday for a new impeller and shaft seal/packing so i guess I'll now then when the boat tech gets a look.

I'll try and summarise with a couple of questions:

Could hitting the prop at slow speed cause these issues or total a v-drive?
Anyone round here had similar problems, or encountered the worst case scenario, and had to replave a v-drive?

Excuse my rambling but this is my first 'bad day on the water' in 4 years and I'm panicing a bit. Not looking forward to two days of not knowing...

Words of wisdom anyone?

D.

Re: Walter V drive woes!

Well, i checked the v-drive oil and it was a little low so i drained and refilled. transmission oil seemed ok - nice and pink. took the boat to the river for a water test (switched prop as well). The sound, upon further inspection, sounds like slipping when the boat is just in gear. Increase the revs and it seems to go away. I couldn't bring my self to go and faster as the noise just sounds wrong to me and i don't want to break anything. Coupled with that, I'm getting a constant alarm when i turn on the engine. This only started happening yesterday as well. No alarm when the boat started on the slipway but it reappeared after stopping and starting 10 minutes later. I press start once, press it a second time and it beeps continuously. Is it maybe a voltage thing? The battery is reading low on the voltage guage (12.1 or so) but fine when tested with a multimeter (12.8). My head is fried.

It's going into the shop tomorrow so fingers crossed.

If anyone has any ideas feel free to chime in - i need virtual reassurance!

D.

Re: Walter V drive woes!

It is posible you bent your strut or prop shaft.

Either one can kill the cutlass bearing real quick.

One thing you could do is check the coupler alignment im not sure on your set up but most are done with a fealer gauge.

Good luck hope this helps

Re: Walter V drive woes!

86 century said:

It is posible you bent your strut or prop shaft.

Either one can kill the cutlass bearing real quick.

One thing you could do is check the coupler alignment im not sure on your set up but most are done with a fealer gauge.

Good luck hope this helps

Click to expand...

I think you might be right. Seems that in most transmissions I've read about some sort of coupling allignment issue can cause 'gear clatter' at low prm which does seem to fit my bill. I'm hoping this is an easy enough fix. The prop does spin by hand no problems and the boat was going super slow when it hit something (i didn't feel a thing)?!

The tech is checking it out today so hopefully I'll know something soon.

Thanks for the reply,

D.

Re: Walter V drive woes!

It's probably fine. Dampener plates can rattle at idle speed, a bent propeller will vibrate, beeping is probably another issue.