09 Mastercraft XStar tranny/ Vdrive HELP ...
 

I have a 2009 Xstar with the LY6 400 motor. I have had it for 2 years now, I purchased the boat with 40 hours and it now has 160 hours on it. I have all service done @ Mastercraft dealership, and always do what they recommended or what needs to be serviced. The boat has been amazing with zero problems. It is kept indoors at all times.

This weekend we were on the lake, I had just put the boat in the water and filled a 900 pound sac on the drivers side rear locker pad. We were surfing for about 1 hour with 5 people in the boat. As I came back slowly to pick up the rider I put the boat in Neutral and talked to the rider for a while, I went to put the boat in reverse it made a horrible grinding sound and didn't ingage. We were pretty much at a complete stop when I shifted into reverse. I immideatly shut the boat off. I let it sit while I checked the fluid level of the 15/40 motor oil for the tranny, it was full, clean and didn't smell burned at all.

At this point I emtied the sac and put it away allowing the boat to sit for a while. I started the boat and tried shifting into into gear to move forward, it made the grinding sound and then went into gear after the grinding sound for a couple seconds, once it was in gear and engaged everything sounded totally normal, we were able to adjust speed from very slowing moving to increased speed and drove back to where my anchor was stationed without any problems or noise.. I left it for the evening and checked it out again in the am. Once again, tranny oil was clean, didn't smell burned and was full. This time it wouldn't not engage into gear. It would only make the girding sound.

As we were pulled back to the dock with the boat in neutral, it made the grinding sound the entire way at 5mph it was pretty loud. Any ideas? I looked at my warranty and it states it is warrantied for 3 years, that means it would have just expired :( any suggestions? Should I contact Mastercraft directly? My dealer has been less than helpful in the past having things warrantied that I have had problems with.

Thanks

Sounds like the drive plate went out.

The drive train warranty is from Indmar. Indmar will not cover anything if it out of warranty, even if its a day out. Indmar is a very difficult company to deal with.

Thanks Action. Sounds like motor and tranny need to be pulled from the boat. Any idea of failure? What a disappointment.

Thanks

When you last checked it, did it sound like it was coming from the bell housing or in the transmission? If it was your bell housing, chances are its the damper plate seeing how the oil was clean. If it was in your transmission, one of the bands could have given in.

I lifted my rear center seat cushion and pulled out the plastic tray, it sounds as if it's coming from the balancer (?) on the front of the unit (I'm assuming is the V drive) where the throttle cable linkage attaches and shifts in forward, neutral, and reverse. Does this make sense?

check your V-drive oil level... sounds like something that happened on my buddy's tige

Indmar is a top notch engine builder / supplier but if its the trany don't look their way

Oil levels are totally fine, clean oil, doesn't smell burnt.

I spent hours online last night searching to see if other people had similar problems or tranny problems from 07 and newer and didn't find anything.

Not sure about your boat, but many have separate v-drives and transmissions, are you sure you're checking both?

Drive Plate
 

Sounds like it could be the drive plate. I have an 05 Xstar and the drive plate exploded while pulling a rider. I hit a log then boom it really sounds like I threw a rod. Luckily it was just the drive plate. Mine was easy to identify as the bell housing came apart due to the drive plate issue. Cost around $3K. Luckily for you the bell housing hasn't failed and that is roughly $500 of the cost.

The drive plate is between the engine and tranny. Kind of in the area you described. I've seen other post of people talking about it sounding like rocks in their transmission.

Not sure the year but some bell housings have a cover plate to make them universal for other starter orientations. You can take the cover plate off your bell housing and see if you see any metal shavings. Don't put your face back there while testing it because if it comes apart it could hurt you.

Thanks Johm