Won't get into gear

Kronholm

Hi guys,

I have a huge problem that I hope you can help me with. This winter I had a new Bravo III drive installed in my Rinker 232 Captiva with a 5.0 Mpi from 2006. The new drive was installed because the old one had a date with a rock. 

Yesterday we went for a sail and after maybe a mile with 3,000 rpm the boat suddenly went up in rpm, but slowed down at the same time. I can start the engine, and it works fine, but I can't get it into forward or backward gear. 

Have some of you got an idea on what the problem can be, or what to look after?

Thanks a lot in advance. 

Wildboating

Did you check the coupler on the back of the motor?   I would start there, sounds like coupler may be failing or already has let go.

rasbury

Bravo III does not have a hub in the prop but does have a couplet that connects the input shaft from the outdrive drive to flywheel on the back of the motor- if I sound like the expert its only because I just had it replaced. If the prop also hit that rock it likely damaged the coupler and it failed when you took it out- do a search on this site and you will see methods to verify.

Wildboating

Put it in gear and look on the back of the motor at the flywheel.  See if the shaft to the transmission is spinning.

rasbury

And if your out of the water you can turn the prop by hand while in gear and see if the shaft un turning...that's what I tried on mine and could not see it move, but, it was the coupler..maybe I should have marked it...

212rowboat

does the lever move freely? if it does, it could be disengaged at either end- most likely the drive end.... if it doesn't move freely, i'd be mighty worried about what's going on inside that gear box........ if you're having a hard time physically moving the lever, i think i'd pop the drain on the foot to see if there is metal in there.  

the coupler is easy to check... it always turns... so, fire up the engine and look at the input shaft of the drive... if it's spinning, it's good. 

Kronholm

Thanks a lot !

I will check the coupler and come back...

when the drive hit the rock the props also hit and took a lot of damage. Is it likely that the coupler could have taken damage at that point? (I don't know much about it). I just want to maybe have a reason for the insurance to cover that repair as well...

Kronholm

I have just checked the shaft and it spins when in neutral and also when I put it into gear. 

reneechris14

Should like the coupler,it is like a sheer pin designed to take the blow and I guess it did.The motor has to come out and there is a up grade model I'm sure some one will post.

212rowboat

That's what you want, kron... is it easy to shift or difficult?

Kronholm

212rowboat said:

That's what you want, kron... is it easy to shift or difficult?

It feels easy to move the lever back and forth

rasbury

The coupler....if the shaft is turning while in gear then there is a disengage between the foot an the motor, right? Otherwise the motor will stop it from turning?

212rowboat

ras, the crank/coupler/input shaft/gears turn all the time except for the foot... it shifts in/out/neutral... 

so... it's easy to move.... too easy?  

you're gonna need to get that thing out of the water... look to where the shift cables attach to the foot (lower) and see if it simply jumped out of the little plastic lever thingy- it may be that simple... if it isn't out of the channel, then you're gonna have to man up and go to the heart of it- pull the plug and drain out some juice- stick a magnet to it if your plug isn't magnetized and see if you draw some metal.... 

rasbury

probably @212rowboat you know me by now, just tell me that ain't right! So even in gear you can turn the prop? To much going on in there for me then...

212rowboat

the crank feeds the input shaft via the coupler- it's always turning when engine is running... the input shaft turns all the way down to the foot- or lower unit... the lower unit is where the disconnect is between forward/neutral/reverse.  

you can turn the prop in gear (engine off), but you have better eaten your wheaties and you might want to have pulled the coil wire before hand (think throwing a prop on a early airplane) as you'll be turning the whole engine..... the lever that alters the output direction is a simple engagement of one of two gears (neutral in between). 

transmissions, transfer cases, differentials (to a lessor degree) and outdrive upper and lowers may as well be written in Swahili braille so far as I'm concerned- they are black magic and witchcraft... sun gears, planetary gears, clutches, sprags, freakin' solenoids and........... let's just make it even more interesting by sucking water up through the thing via a shaft driven pump and cooling the engine too (alpha) while we're at it!!!!    engineers do some amazing stuff.... i'm pretty sure they get high on the ganja in the parking lot before these idea's appear and manifest on the ar$e end of our boats.  

rasbury

OK @212rowboat now you confused me...so back to what I was saying...if you put it in gear, and you can freely turn the prop, you can see the input shaft turning but it is not engaging with the motor, then you know that the coupler is bad, correct? I would never ever ever tare into that out drive for sure...I had a carrier bearing seal leak and I had someone else do that and that would probably be fairly straight forward if you had the right tools but over my head, I'd sure the whole lower unit up or something, not worth it.

212rowboat

aye- i see the disconnect- literally... 

from the engine side- if the engine turns the shaft while it is running, coupler working.

if engine off- and from the DRIVE side, if in gear and turning the prop by hand the engine CAN'T be turned- coupler bad...

i approached from engine side... you approached from prop side.. we both right. 

rasbury

whew!