Transmission slipping ??

Hi there !
Yesterday my boat started to make a noise when accelerating (not everytime). It's like when the prop run free in a pocket of air..

My friend told my it was my tranny that was slipping...

He also told me that it was because it had not enough tranny oil..?

Any tough about this ?

Thanx!
Luc

Did you check your tranny oil??

sometimes you can get something we call prop cavitation...happens on my 2000 X-star sometimes when I accelerate through turns while weighted down pretty good...

I believe this is becuase the flow of water along the bottom of your boat is disrupted by air just in front or near the prop. So your prop winds up biting into air and water vs. only water.

On my boat this doens't happen very often...but when it does...there is nothing you can do about it...normal.



(Message edited by highrider on July 12, 2005)

Hi Luc,

You have the same boat as me, so I can offer you some concrete advice.
1) with the boat in the water, remove the engine cover completely. This will allow easy access to the transmission oil dipstick. If you're not comfortable doing that, just lift it open like normal. You'll have to reach for the dipstick though, and the exhaust manifolds get in the way!
2) run the engine in neutral (just idling) for a minute or 2. Turn the engine off, go to the back and pull the dipstick. The oil should be at (or very near) the full mark. If it's not, add some and find out where the old oil went to.

As another poster said as well, there's a chance the prop cavitated. It's happened to me when turning the boat. Just throttle down, wait for the boat to sink back in the water, then accelerate slowly. No damage is done.

Trash

Hi there !
Thanx Guys for the info !
Thanx Trash !

I checked the oil level and it seems to be in the middle of the marks..
I will add some tonight

THANX AGAIN!
Luc

Check it when you are on the water after the engine has warmed up, put it in forward, then reverse, then check the level in nuetral with engine running. If low, add small increments until you get to full. DON'T OVERFILL, you will bubble the oil.

There is a small amount of oil that goes into the oil cooler, it will make a difference in your reading and needs to be accounted for when you check it, that's why the boat should be warmed up and has shifted a couple times.

With the engine off, the reading may go above full, that is normal since the oil in the oil cooler my flow back into the main reservoir.

Check the prop, make sure it isn't dinged or bent. It doesn't take much of ding on the prop to make it start cavitating.

What kind of boat is this? If this is an I/O then I would also suspect that the rubber hub in the prob has sheared. If you have a V-Drive or Driect Drive then you prop wouldn't have a rubber hub.

If it is the transmission slipping then you can expect it to get a lot worse really fast. I would consider reducing ballast or otherwise reducing the load to try and nurse it to the end of the season. If it keeps slipping it won't last long.