Not so good trip to the river today...

[semo549]

I just got a 1992 Celebrity sport cruiser with twin 5.7's/alpha 1 drives. This was our first time out on it since we bought it. We cruised great for about an hour when all the sudden I here one of my motors reving up really high. I backed off the throttle and and kicked it into neutral. The rivers are still flooded so I suspected I could have damaged a prop off a log. Well the starbord drive works fine but the port won't go into forward or reverse, nuthing happens it just revs up. I trimmed the drive up and the prop feels fine, no broken blades or anything. The weird thing to me is there was 6 of us on board and nobody one heard a knock like we hit something, my dad was diving, he said he didn't see anything. It has SS props on it. Is it possible that this could be a shift cable problem and not something worse? any suggesstions? I'm thinking that I'm going to be paying for this one... not a good was to start off the season. Any imput would appreciated. Thanks

Here's a pic of when it was running earlier in the day.

 

[havasuboatman]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

What you need to do is put the drive in forward gear with the motor OFF.
Go to the back of the boat and try to turn the prop backwards by hand.
If the prop turns, is the prop shaft also turning? If it is not, you need to remove the prop and replace the hub.
If the prop shaft IS turning, you will need to have someone looking down the back of the motor at the driveshaft where it comes out of the coupler and goes into the transom assy.
Drive still in forward gear, motor OFF, turn the prop backwards again. Is the driveshaft turning?
If it is, then the coupler (mounted on the flywheel) needs to be replaced.
If the driveshaft is not turning, then I suspect you have outdrive problems.
You can check for a broken lower shift cable by disconnecting it from the remote shift unit and pulling on the end, though I really doubt that is going to be your problem. Cable issues show up when shifting into or out of gear. Not while cruising.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

might have spun the drive coupler (due to time/engine misalignment)- peeking in the rear bellhousing area with a bright light might reveal shards of aluminum.

If that is the case, the engine would have been overheating if run long after the slippage occurred.

 

[semo549]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

Thanks for the help, the crappy thing is I don't have a lift yet and the ramps around the area are really flooded to trailor the boat out. Looks like I'll have to pay another $30 and have the fork lift pick it out for me lol. hopefully I can make it out to the marina tonight. I'll try what you said and I'll post the results. Im almost positive its not a spun hub because I can't feel the drive even trying to go into gear. Thank god for twin engines!

Jim

 

[ken_23434]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

Checking the prop hub and the engine coupler can be done with the boat in the water.

 

[PitchFork]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

Been there and done that. Last year I was trying props out and I was cruising for about 5 minutes and all of a sudden RPMs 5K+ revved high and boat dead in the water. I thought great I just lost the prop I borrowed from a neighbor. I trimmed it all the way up no prop still there so I lowered it back down and tried to go and heard a spinning noise and no go. I idled over to an island and changed props in the water. Spun Hub it can be tested in the water put in forward and try to spin it CCW with the motor off of coarse. It may take a little force.

Nothing like changing a prop in the water. I would recommend doing it in shallow water less than a six feet in case you need to dive down to retrieve the prop or prop nut.

 

[zbnutcase]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

Probably the engine coupler, especially if the boat has had the usual (none) amount of maintaince done by the P.O

 

[Lodgepole]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

If you have to change a prop in deep water, always tie a line to it.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

don't need to pull the boat out of the water to check the coupler.

 

[semo549]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

Still at work now so I can't check it untill later. One more thought before I got to the marina and check it; whenever I tried putting the drive into gear several times, I never even heard the usual clunk when it goes into gear. Would it still make the gear engaging noise if it was just a spun prop hub? The problem is that I don't hear any engaging of it going into gear. I spun a prob on my runabout last year and it would still go into gear and idle forward but when given throttle it would spin

 

[littlebookworm]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

To me, it sounds like the coupler went; but I'm only guessing from your description and the other comments. You wouldn't hear the outdrive shift into gear if the coupler had gone because there would be no torque on the shaft - it's not "connected" to the engine. Unfortunately, to change a coupler usually involves pulling the engine unless you've got alot of room in your engine bay to slide the engine forward to reach the bell housing and coupler. By the way, $30 to pull the boat out with the forklift is cheap. Here, on Long Island, the charge for doing that to my 24' cruiser 5 years ago was $100! Good luck. Hy

 

[krisnowicki]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

if your coupler is bad on and engine with an alpha drive your engine will over heat because the drive will not be turning which turns the water pump. Was there any over heating? I think it is the coupler too. Depending on what kind of access you have with the engine in the boat, you may be able to change the couple with it in the boat.But, this is not an easy job.

 

[JaseBosto]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

It sounds to me like if he has a bad coupler, you might as well pull the thing out and get the engines re-aligned....so it doesnt happen again this year....

 

[semo549]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

Well we got the boat out of the water and figured out the problem. Definitly forgot to put oil into the outdrive. Its toast, gears are fried... What also sucks is we spent hours refinishing the both drives over winter. Costly mistake... I may try finding a used outdrive and switch the gear set over to my housing. I'm not real sure yet though. Anyone have the most cost effective solution? I need a upper and lower Alpha1 gen2. Would buying just the gears be a cheaper alternative?

Here's a pic of the outdrive after we refinished it. all that work for nuthing...

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

Definitly forgot to put oil into the outdrive

Wow...that sucks. Did you forget the oil in only one of the outdrives?

I make it a habit of checking both outdrive oil and engine oil before every trip. I know that it isn't possible if the boat is already in the water.

 

[semo549]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

thankfully i had oil in the engine, just not the drive. i might go hang myself later...lol

 

[MTribe08]

Re: Not so good trip to the river today...

thankfully i had oil in the engine, just not the drive. i might go hang myself later...lol

Just wondering how this happened..did you forget the oil reservoir too?