Boat drops out of Forward Geer

[Goat1314]

Ok do this is weird I have a 1989 Starcraft Islander 221V with a V6 Mercruiser and a Alpha 1 drive. Spent all summer fishing and went out on friday to the BLue zone in Lake Ontario. 15 miles out and 15 miles back at 4000RPM cruising along at 30MPH with no porblems Fished all day to! Saturday I take my too boys out for one last ride before fueling up and getting ready to yank the boat on Monday and when we round the corner of the marina and I ease the throtle forward, the boats surges forward and wants to come out of the water and all of a sudden the RPM shoots up and the boat drops out of geer and falls back in the water. ( I do not do whole shots and have always eased up the throtle slowly) I try again with the same result We reverse back into the marina and fuel up. On the way back to the slip i need more and more RPM to get it to go forward. The prop is secure (checked it whyle fueling up) and it seams to operate fine in Reverse.... What gives? I can't beleive I striped the forward geer I have never treated my baby in a abrupt maner in the two years I have owned her and no one else is alowed to drive her. Their is no odd noise or grinding coming from the engine. could it be the shift Cable ? I checked it and it's secured

 

[alldodge]

Ok do this is weird I have a 1989 Starcraft Islander 221V with a V6 Mercruiser and a Alpha 1 drive. Spent all summer fishing and went out on friday to the BLue zone in Lake Ontario. 15 miles out and 15 miles back at 4000RPM cruising along at 30MPH with no porblems Fished all day to! Saturday I take my too boys out for one last ride before fueling up and getting ready to yank the boat on Monday and when we round the corner of the marina and I ease the throtle forward, the boats surges forward and wants to come out of the water and all of a sudden the RPM shoots up and the boat drops out of geer and falls back in the water. ( I do not do whole shots and have always eased up the throtle slowly) I try again with the same result We reverse back into the marina and fuel up. On the way back to the slip i need more and more RPM to get it to go forward. The prop is secure (checked it whyle fueling up) and it seams to operate fine in Reverse.... What gives? I can't beleive I striped the forward geer I have never treated my baby in a abrupt maner in the two years I have owned her and no one else is alowed to drive her. Their is no odd noise or grinding coming from the engine. could it be the shift Cable ? I checked it and it's secured

Is there any smell of burnt rubber?
When was the last time the engine alignment was checked?
Wondering if you burned out the engine coupler

If coupler is good, check the prop by taking it off and looking at the rubber hub. If you spun the prop hub you can not turn it by hand. Look at it close for any crackes

 

[achris]

... I can't believe I striped the forward gear I have never treated my baby in a abrupt manner in the two years I have owned her and no one else is allowed to drive her. Their is no odd noise or grinding coming from the engine. could it be the shift Cable ? I checked it and it's secured

When you say 'never abrupt' how do you shift gear? Quick motion into gear with a minimal grinding/clicking, or do you 'ease' it into gear?

Chris.....

 

[Goat1314]

I ease it into geer. i did find some braided line wraped behind the prop could that have trashed the prop hub. And if its the hub does it explain why it goes in reverse but not forward? Also Engine was aligned in the spring and thir is no smell of burnt rubber that I could detect

 

[alldodge]

I ease it into geer. i did find some braided line wraped behind the prop could that have trashed the prop hub. And if its the hub does it explain why it goes in reverse but not forward? Also Engine was aligned in the spring and thir is no smell of burnt rubber that I could detect

Probably not the coupler but the prop is still suspect/ Pull the prop and let us know what you find looking at the rubber outer center.

 

[Goat1314]

The more I think about it the more the prop makes sense. Their is alot of "salad" in the water at the harbour this time of year and the prop and hub are Old. Add to that my son just reminded me that I had to avoid another boat today backing out of his slip by shifting into reverse (Words where exchanged) and it ads up. THe suden reverse in a dense vegetation packed water may have been to much for the prop hub. I have a spare prop That I will try tomorrow (man the water is gonna be cold) I will let you know what I find

 

[stonyloam]

Boats do not " slip out of gear". You have a drive problem, either the coupler, coupler splines or prop hub. The reason reverse works OK is that when the prop turns in reverse it does not see as much resistance from the water as it sees in forward, so it does not slip. With the boat out of the water, engine off, place in forward and try to rotate the prop COUNTERCLOCKWISE and see if it turns without turning the engine. One other thing, if it is the coupler the engine will begin to overheat because the outdrive water pump impeller will not be turning.

 

[thumpar]

Don't ease it into gear. It should be a swift motion. Once it is in gear you can ease on the throttle but don't do it going into gear.

 

[achris]

If you've been easing into gear you will be knocking the edges off the dogs. Do that enough and you will end up with nothing left of the dogs to hold it in gear. Mark the prop and hub and see if that's the problem. If it isn't, then it's strip the lower box and replace the dogs, or a new SEI...

 

[tank1949]

Ok do this is weird I have a 1989 Starcraft Islander 221V with a V6 Mercruiser and a Alpha 1 drive. Spent all summer fishing and went out on friday to the BLue zone in Lake Ontario. 15 miles out and 15 miles back at 4000RPM cruising along at 30MPH with no porblems Fished all day to! Saturday I take my too boys out for one last ride before fueling up and getting ready to yank the boat on Monday and when we round the corner of the marina and I ease the throtle forward, the boats surges forward and wants to come out of the water and all of a sudden the RPM shoots up and the boat drops out of geer and falls back in the water. ( I do not do whole shots and have always eased up the throtle slowly) I try again with the same result We reverse back into the marina and fuel up. On the way back to the slip i need more and more RPM to get it to go forward. The prop is secure (checked it whyle fueling up) and it seams to operate fine in Reverse.... What gives? I can't beleive I striped the forward geer I have never treated my baby in a abrupt maner in the two years I have owned her and no one else is alowed to drive her. Their is no odd noise or grinding coming from the engine. could it be the shift Cable ? I checked it and it's secured

Couple alignment is criticle and you should have notice vibrations. Mine was out when I bought boat because previous idiot had installed new motor and never checked it. It shook the whole motor. I'd also check linkage. MC have an interrupt switch that works to temporilly halting current to coil which allows a smoother thansition into gear. There are some studs holding linkage onto manifold with interrupt (at least on my 5.7s). If one of these studs have sheared or worked loose, this may only give you nutral and reverse movement. Just a thought! If you examine under drive, there is a male lever that plugs into a femal from your shifer assembly. There is only about 90 degrees of ark. 45 degree is nutral. We aint talking much to be in or out of either gear. And if there is one way slop, that may be your culprit.

 

[Goat1314]

Boats do not " slip out of gear". You have a drive problem, either the coupler, coupler splines or prop hub. The reason reverse works OK is that when the prop turns in reverse it does not see as much resistance from the water as it sees in forward, so it does not slip. With the boat out of the water, engine off, place in forward and try to rotate the prop COUNTERCLOCKWISE and see if it turns without turning the engine. One other thing, if it is the coupler the engine will begin to overheat because the outdrive water pump impeller will not be turning.

THis makes the most sense to me . Sliped of the prop today and put on a spare I had under the passenger seat with lots of cobwebs on it. Pull the boat tomorrow SO will try it then but initial test tied to the dock showed lotsw off power and water displacemnet in gueer

 

[frank246]

Funny..Nobody mentioned the lower shift cable..!
When the cable binds when pushing the dog in fw gear it can happen that the dog will not fully engage.
For reverse the cable is pulled so less chance it flexes back.
Bad coupler...can be but would be noticed in both directions.

 

[achris]

Funny..Nobody mentioned the lower shift cable..!
When the cable binds when pushing the dog in fw gear it can happen that the dog will not fully engage.
For reverse the cable is pulled so less chance it flexes back.
Bad coupler...can be but would be noticed in both directions.

If the dogs partially engage, the undercut on the back side of the dogs will pull them in under load. That's why there's a shift cutout switch for disengaging gear. If the cable binds, it stalls the engine...

Chris...

 

[Goat1314]

Update

Well changing the Prop didn't work and there is now alot of vibration coming from the motor. Damn.... at least it held out for the fishing season!

So the next question I have is for the Marine mechanics in the crowd, How much can I expect to pay to have the folowing done.

Engine pulled and Oil pump checked (High oil PSI means it might be a stuck releif valve)
Coupler replaced
Bellows and shift cable replaced
Engine install and re-aligned properly

I'm looking at a ball park figure so I don't get raked over by the local Marine mechanics.

 

[alldodge]

Update

Well changing the Prop didn't work and there is now alot of vibration coming from the motor. Damn.... at least it held out for the fishing season!

So the next question I have is for the Marine mechanics in the crowd, How much can I expect to pay to have the folowing done.

Engine pulled and Oil pump checked (High oil PSI means it might be a stuck releif valve)
Coupler replaced
Bellows and shift cable replaced
Engine install and re-aligned properly

I'm looking at a ball park figure so I don't get raked over by the local Marine mechanics.

Throwing parts at the problem when the actual problem is unknown, is a waste of money and effort. No one here as yet to know what is going on from the info provided.

If the is in gear (FWD) and then slips out the drive is suspect. If it won't go into gear then it needs adjusting.

 

[Goat1314]

It goes into gueer and stays there their is just very litttle forward propulsion. It seems the more RPM I gave it the less foward motion I got and the more Vibration it gave me. Reverse seems OK and I get a little forward movement at Idle but the problem seemed to get worse and worse the more I used it. I have been noticing a drop in speed for RPM for a while now. At first I thought it was the rebuild I did last year on the Cylinder heads then I thought it was build up on the hull as the year progressed then all of a sudden last saturday it all feell apart. THe engine was alighend by me last year until I could pull the adjustment bar out with 2 fingers and push it in with my thumb. It took a couple of hours but i'm sure it was done right.Before I did it was very out of ligne.Also the reason for the rebuild was because the engine over heated and cracked one of my heads.THose are the sypmtoms. THe shift cable was adjusted by me acording to the Mercruiser specs and it worked well all summer. I checked it last night and it operates smoothly and does ot stick or jerk.

 

[stonyloam]

Try putting it in forward gear and pturn the prop counterclospckwise. If it is the coupler the prop should turn without turning the engine. If you can do cylinder heads and alignment you should be able to change a coupler. You just need to pull the outdrive and unbolt the engine, lift and move it forward (or the boat back) until you can access the coupler bolts. Ya got al winter to do it.

 

[Goat1314]

Yes I would be able to do it but time is a factor and I don't have a garage so I'm out in the elements. Also I discussed using the Maple tree in the front yard as a crane with my wife and she was less then crazy about hanging an engine in the front yard for any length of time. Something about being a redneck and a cheap SOB. THis is why I'm looking into getting it done profesionaly.

 

[achris]

Lean into the back of the engine and mark the coupler and the input shaft... Run the boat (so the problem occurs) and then check your marks. If they have moved, relative to each other, then you have a stuffed coupler.

As for the time/cost to repair... Depends on how easy (or difficult) the engine is to remove. The actual replacing of the coupler once the engine is out, easy, about 1 hours.... The time will be in pulling and re-installing the engine... As a guide (and this is just a guide) I can have my engine out in under 2 hours. Back in is around 2 hours. BUT, other boats have different access to the engine and it's fastening hardware. I've had to work on boats it's taken 5 hours to get the engine out, and a lot long to put them back. There's also the question of any 'other hardware' to remove to gain access to the engine to start the removal process...

HTH,

Chris......

 

[stonyloam]

LOL yeah engine in tree... Not good! But you would not actually have to remove the engine from the boat, just lift and move to be able to get to the coupler bolts. Probably only have to move it forward (or back the boat) by about a couple of feet (might have to remove some seats). Once you get everything ready to pull, shouldn't take more than a day to have the coupler changed and the engine back on its mounts. No redneck tree ornaments. A boatyard Is probably going to charge you $70-90 per hour. You might ask them if you can do some of the prep work to save time ( get the engine ready to pull) and pull the outdrive. Good luck.