1997 echelon no thrust

[TFisher]

Driving my 1997 echelon today and pulling a tube, hit wave and suddenly no forward or reverse. Pulled son skiing earlier and a tube up to that point.

 

Did not notice any slippage up to that point. Pulled Pulled a 34 mph slalom skier thru course two days ago and times were perfect.

 

Checked transmission fluid level (very slightly low (above low fill line), no smell). Changed fluid and topped off

 

Linkage is moving on the transmission. Middle of linkage is rotating when throttle moves. Shaft spins very slightly when engine revs. No sound of transmission going into gear.

 

Any ideas?

 

TF

 

[MNshortliner]

Happened to me. Collar on the dampener plate broke. So where the tranny shaft slides into the plate on the motor fly wheel. Had to pull the tranny off and the v drive to replace it. It was on a Malibu VLX.

[MNshortliner]

Also a ‘97.

[BraceMaker]

Damper could do it though if connected enough to make some rotation it should make a heck of a racket! You might have a lower inspection plate on the bellhousing of so metal chunks likes springs falling out of it would be a good proof of damper plate failure.

 

Also sometimes you can get a view through the starter hole with a mirror or light checking for signs of failure.

 

Another item to inspect is to remove the shift cable and manually engage forwards and reverse to see if you get engagement. Sometimes the ferrules at the shifter will wear to be sloppy enough to just not quite engage fully. But your series of events does sound like damper failure.

[TFisher]

No racket when in gear, just nothing. When I say shaft slowly moving, I mean spinning like 10 or 20 rpm at most. More like the spin you get when you in neutral and the boat is revved. Not enough to notice unless the floor is up.

 

Had a mechanic friend look at it this a.m. They though damper plate or transmission.

 

MN - Did you source the plate? If so, where?

 

Brace - Thanks for the tips. I'll take a closer look today.

[MNshortliner]

I got my plate from skidim.com When mine broke all other hardware was intact. Only the weld at the collar broke and it slide down the tranny shaft 1/4” and didn’t make any odd noises.

[TFisher]

Thanks for the help guys. Unfortunately, it was the transmission. Damper plate looked fine.

 

Fortunately, mechanic says its done. I'm picking up to water test shortly.

 

A little curious about the lack of warning on the failure. Could pump have sudden failure like I experienced?

[BraceMaker]

Is it a 450 Hurth? https://www.harbormarine.net/pdf/hbw360a_450_repair_tech.pdf

 

My guess for sudden failures usually runs more towards sheared keys or pins - but you never know till you take things apart.

 

[TFisher]

HSW 450D. I'll take a look at that to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks for the link and the help.