Okay, Dad & I took his new Crownline out on Saturday morning. All was going well. Evidently we made a wrong turn coming out of a cove & we needed to cut through some trees to get back to the main channel. Thought we would be fine as long as we were going slow... WRONG!!! There was a tree under the water that we hit on the prop doing about 5 - 8 mph. Now the prop won't spin. No visible damage, What broke??? Mercruiser Serial No. OW492382.

On I/O's, especially the new ones, the shaft the prop is connected to, is supposed to break loose for this exact reason. You can go to your local dealer (not necessarily the one you purchased your boat from, just a dealer that works on Mercruiser engines). Make sure you take the SN with you, and tell them the problem. They should have a replacement handy. I have found that all the places around here have the parts for the same price as Mercruisers website. I have found some things at certain sites cheaper, but then you have to pay for shipping, and then wait. <BR> <BR> Anyway your dealer should be able to get you the part. Should be easy to replace.

..... So how did you get back? Paddle? Tow? just wondering. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

We were about 2 miles away from the loading dock &amp; after waving to 3 different fishermen, 1 of them finally figured out that we needed help &amp; weren't just being friendly. They towed us in w/ their little 90 HP boat. We were soooo fortunate to have someone stop &amp; help because it was a bit of a swim to the shore &amp; then probably 3 or 4 miles of walking around the shoreline to get to the marina. When we tried to give them some money, he said he didn't want it. Last year he was on a sailboat that capsized in a thunderstorm &amp; he didn't have a life jacket. Sounded like he was much worse off than we were. Somebody did the same thing for him so he was just passing on the favor.

Is it fairly easy to change, or at least something that I could figure out w/ some guidance?

Jory, <BR> I'm not sure exactly how I/O's are set up. I've never heard of the prop not spinning. My only advice is to use a prop puller and wear leather gloves. I cut my hand open pulling a prop once, and I knew I should have been wearing gloves, Good Luck.

Jory, <BR> Check this out. Just a troubleshooting step. ... may help. <BR><a href="http://sterndrive.com/board/show_subtopic.cfm?ID=4173&amp;TopicID=42" target="_blank">http://sterndrive.com/board/show_subtopic.cfm?ID=4173&amp;TopicID=42</a>

Got it fixed under warranty. The dealer said that even though there was a small nick in the prop, we clearly didn't hit anything hard enough to cause what happened - a sleeve on the shaft stripped out, I guess?. I guess it didn't take very long to change because they called an hour later to say it was ready.

Oh, forgot to thank everyone for the help!