Bravo 3

ohana

My marina mechanic met me at my boat to discuss doing routine outdrive service over the winter. Pulling out drives, change fluids etc.. In passing he mentioned possible “shark toothing” on the spline. AND I’d have to pull the engines to repair. Is this just worse,case scenario discussion?  And has anyone repaired and at what cost?

It is a 2003 Rinker 312 fv 

skennelly

I'm guessing he's talking about the coupler...engine would have to be moved to change that out.  But not normally part of drive service.

ohana

I think so too. But seemed odd he mentioned that without seeing anything. 

Liberty44140

It does seem odd that he mentioned that, there is no need to pull the engines to repair anything on the drive other than the coupler. Wearing on the coupler splines would mean it needs to be changed but I’ve been told my several mechanics that it’s almost impossible to tell if the coupler splines are bad from outside the boat. Maybe has a great trick or something, there should be a lot of grease in there so seeing the splines is hard.

randy56

Is he talking about the spline that goes to the engine coupler? or props? 

rasbury

What would the term shark toothing even mean? I'd be pretty suspicious right off the bat. I would be scared to death to have my boat and not understand how it works mechanically. My recent project of rebuilding the transom plate and pull the engine sure gave that understanding. And, it ended with a Jerry rigged the power steering cooler by a mechanic that worked on it along the line so it would pay to be aware..

rasbury

Thanks for the explanation Al and I assumed he was talking worse case. I don't know how often this worse case scenario happens nut it seems suspicious to go there right off the bat. I'm in the vehicle business and such a similar conversation in my world would be a way to set the customer up- not a practice I do and I'm sure good competent mechanics do not need either. I think most boat owners do that to themselves!

ohana

Thank you all for the input and explanations. He’s known for being a good and honest mechanic and did say he was worse casing it.  But..lost a night of sleep thinking about how much it’s gonna run me to fix. **** boats. Lol. Happy Holidays fellow boater friends. 

rasbury

Yes@alswagg....don't think it would take me long to pull a motor either!

Ian

ohana said:

Thank you all for the input and explanations. He’s known for being a good and honest mechanic and did say he was worse casing it.  But..lost a night of sleep thinking about how much it’s gonna run me to fix. **** boats. Lol. Happy Holidays fellow boater friends. 

You do realize boat is not a noun but an acronym for Break Out Another Thousand right?