No prop movement!?

dafoe

Hey guys!

So, we recently had the out drives serviced (along with a other items) with fresh gear oil at South River Marina near Annapolis, MD...  drove the boat home, about 20 miles...  took her out about a week later alarm sounded...  being new wasnt sure what it was, though noticed the port side seemed as though it was struggling, was close to home so we took her back on the lift, come to notice the gear oil on the port side was EMPTY!  OH DAM!  I said...  This can't be good...  filled the reservoir back up, level did not move for 24 hours...  Took her out today to get gas, and went to put the engines in gear, nothing from the port side...  the engine just revs, no prop movement.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

We called South River Marina, they just want us to come down for a boat winterization at the tune of $2200!  I advised that we'd take care of the Winterization, but our concern is the out drives being just serviced by them on a 50 hour boat and now one is possibly failed... 

Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated!

Here's a pic...





Dave

LaRea

You said it's lift-stored -- can you reach the props to try spinning them by hand?  If each drive feels and sounds the same as the other, maybe it's something simple like a shift cable.  But with the empty lube bottle, I doubt it.  

Hoping for best! 

Michael T

Was there any sign of an oil sheen on the water at any time? Is there any evidence of gear lube leakage in your bilge? I think the alarm that you heard was the white float that travels up and down on a ss pin inside your gear lube safety reservoir bottoming-out due to no gear lube left in the reservoir and setting off the low drive lube alarm. I assume that the tech did not forget to fill your drive back up after service. IMO that leaves three possibilities: 1. The oil leaked out of the drive outside the transom via a bad seal on one of the parts (if so there would be an oil sheen on the water at some time) 2. The oil leaked out of the gear lube reservoir or the hose that connects it to the drive in the engine bay (if so there should be evidence of a substantial leak in your bilge and by now probably on the water) 3. The tech did not run your drives in gear and did not get enough gear lube into the drive. This could have happened if an air pocket formed that made it look as if the reservoir were full. Then underway, with you driving the drive would have "burped" air and tried to draw down more gear thereby lube draining the reservoir - but not meaning to be rude -the tech would have to be an idiot or real careless if that was the case, because he should have known that he did not add the specified amount of gear lube at re-fill time. As you hunt down the cause you need to make sure you have copies of the work order from the marina and keep it. Don't give your original back to them if they ask for a copy of your work order to confirm what was done - make a photocopy of it for them. As LaRea said there are a number of reasons why a drive won't shift but when that is associated with an empty reservoir a whole new picture emerges. QUESTION: I'm sorry but I do not know the answer to this: If you have DTS could a low gear alarm result in your management system disabling the "fly by wire" shifting/throttles for that drive? If so, things may be okay. (Fingers crossed). However - uUntil you find out more - I strongly adviseyou to not use that engine or drive again. Best of luck - pls let us know what has happened. MT

Black_Diamond

Could be the shift cable came undone at the drive if they had it off.  If the props turn by hand then either a cable or a coupler.

As for the oil, a big air bubble in the drive can leave the reservoir dry..or underfilled too.

Mike_G

Black_Diamond said:

As for the oil, a big air bubble in the drive can leave the reservoir dry..or underfilled too.

On my new 260 (just under 10 hours now), I checked the drive lube reservoir the first time I took it out.  After that, I check the oil each time but just glanced at the drive lube bottle.  The last time I took it out (before winterizing/shipping back) I actually checked the drive lube bottle and it was nearly empty (not empty, but VERY low).  I assume due to a "burp".  Luckily, my dealer/marina left me bottles of extra fluids (oil, drive lube) with my boat so all I had to do was open it up and add.  Ran it again for an hour or so and all was good.

Hopefully it is as easy as that regarding the low fluid level, but the "struggling" of the port engine makes me think seizing drive or something bad.  I hope I am wrong.  Keep us informed, I am curious now. -=Mike G.

MarkB

Drive lube empty after 20 hours. Yes it could burb, but that's a lot of gear lube. You should pressure test the drive system. Perhaps a blow seal.  Is there any gear lube (or evidence of) in your bilge? Some of the fittings may not have been tightened properly during the service. When you shift, do you hear the transmission engaging. Forward? Reverse? If you don't hear it engaging, it could be the cable as MT says.

Dream_Inn

Dafoe, you need to be giving Skip a call right away to make sure he takes care of it.  It should not be that empty.  As others have said, you should be able to manually check the prop and such, but they should be making it right.  I'm a bit curious how this goes since I am in the SRM.  Please keep us updated.