Out drive slips with heavy load

[grouchyglass]

Good evening,<br /> I have an 1986 Fabuglass with the OMC HO V6 and Cobra outdrive. I belive this boat origonaly had a smaller engine that was replaced some where along the way. As far as I know the outdrive has never been apart. The last time we where on the water, after running a short time, The outdrive seemed to slip under full acceleration from slow speed. This felt and sounded like a clutch slipping on a manual shift car. I did not notice any rubber smell when this happened. I eased off the gas and idled in to a cove and shut her down for a while. Later I started up and took it easy (no hard acceleration)for maybe 20 minutes of running. I could ease her up to speed with no problem. At the end of the day once close to home I could go from idle to WOT with no problem. I have yet to drain the outdrive oil so I do not know what it looks like. It has not been changed since last year but I have checked the level and it looks okay. Thanks for any advice you may offer.

 

[Scaaty]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

9 out of 10 if the problem has gone away, you picked up a piece of seaweed, crud, plastic bag (I overheated on a Jellyfish one time), and once you stop it falls off. Something like that happens, stop and go into reverse for a bit. <br />And welcome to Iboats!

 

[grouchyglass]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

Okay,<br /> So it has happened twice now. The first time I was in the wake of another boat with a tube hanging off the back so I thought the tube was draging her down. The last time I raised the outdrive and found nothing on there. It scared me thinking that something was really badly broken. I love my time on the boat and don't like anything to threaten that. But I know reality happens.

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

It's possible your prop hub may be slipping. take something and scribe a line across the hub to the prop and next time it happens check the line, if it doesn't line up anymore then that's your problem

 

[grouchyglass]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

Thanks Boatin Bob,<br /> I hope that it is something simple like that. It is not a good time of the year to be doing major repairs.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

Originally posted by grouchyglass:<br /> It is not a good time of the year to be doing major repairs.

No it's not but that's when so many problems show up. It must be somewhat universal because you can hardly get a boat worked on this time of year.

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

How does your Cobra shift? ..Can you shift it into F and R with gentle pressure of 2 fingers on the shifter?<br /><br />If it has been hard to get in or out of F or R, your problem could be cable adjustments which may have now turned into a lower unit failure..

 

[grouchyglass]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

It has been a little hard to shift I guess. I never noticed it but my brother drove it after being in another boat and said that it was hard to shift. It always goes right in gear though.

 

[grouchyglass]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

Okay,<br /> I drained the outdrive lube and it has a bit of gray looking stuff in it that seems to seperate from the lube it's self. I marked the prop and hub to see if it slips. If we don't have storms tomorrow I will take her out for a test ride and see what happens.

 

[grouchyglass]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

Update,<br /> When I drained the outdrive lube there was a bit of matalic particals on the magnet part of the drain plug. I put in new lube and marked the prop. We got a bit of good weather today so we went out. I took it easy for a while and later pushed it a bit. It never really slipped like before and the prop did not move from the mark.

 

[MrBill]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

Last year experienced "slip" and had quite a time diagnosing the problem. I thought, as everyone does, that it was prop spin. Finally I found that my out drive was lifting under hard acceleration as I adjusted trim. You would expect the prop force to push the drive down but wear allowed high pressure on the lift side. Had to replace pump and rebuild cyclinders. This probably much more rare than a spun hub, but much more difficult to diagnose. Just like you, if I accelerated very slowly I didn't have problems, but that was probably due to less trim adjusting getting to plane.

 

[grouchyglass]

Re: Out drive slips with heavy load

I never would have thought about that. If it happens again, I will get someone else to drive so I can watch the outdrive.