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Less than 20 hours, no forward gear engagement


SVTHorsnake

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My family just bought a 2008 247 Wake Setter. I'm a waterskier but we have all types in my family.

Long story short, we put some hours on it (20) on a near-by lake to make sure any issues expose themselves, then took it, this past Saturday, to Lake Powell for a 5 day trip. On the first day, I cruised over to the marina for some firewood and ice. When pulling up to the dock, I couldn't get the forward gear to engage. No grinding, noises, or viberations of any kind, just a rev up. I played with the neutral button a bit, reset the system, checked the transmission fluid, then threw in the towel. We towed it back to the ramp and got in on to the trailer. The trip was done, as the purpose of the whole trip was rope time. We lost 4 days worth of rental fees on our houseboat.

I love this boat. It looks great and is one of the most versatile boats around, but I can't swallow how my family's been making this trip yearly for the past 15 years with a 1993 Formula, with a carburated, sterndrive powertrain, and the only time it stalled up was when the emergency kill switch went bad (a 10 minute bypass), and this boat can't make it 30 minutes into a beer run.

I also understand anything from an assembly line can have malfunctions, but this isn't something that showed in first or second run out, it showed after 8 trips and 20 hours. On top of all this, the season in Utah's almost over so, if it's a mechanical problem, a 3 week turnover from Indmar means no more riding this year. I'm really hoping it's associated with the TBW recall everybody's been talking about, for the simplicity and timeliness of the repair.

/end rant

The boat's at the dealership. Anybody else ever heard of this, or have any insight?

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Check the electrical connector on the transmission that is routed from the shifter. It might have come loose or popped off due to it not being engaged fully. On my wakesetter, it is on a solenoid on the right side top of the trans.

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I wish you would or could have posted this problem before you lost 4 days at lake powell. I could have guided you to 4 or 5 different fixes for this.

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That is a total bummer.

Is this boat fly-by-wire? If so, there is an urgent recall that the dealer should have addressed before you ever picked the boat up. I am asking because you said "played with the neutral button" which, if fly by wire means it was not addressed, since the update removes the ability to rev the motor in neutral as the neutral button (you push in to disengage going into gear) is removed with the fix. If not fly by wire, then that is all moot. Also, at least on the VTX, you can manually engage gear on the transmission. It is in the manual on how to do it, not that you would be able to spend 4 days boating like that, but at least you can avoid a tow.

Edited by TheBlackPearl
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That is a total bummer.

Is this boat fly-by-wire? If so, there is an urgent recall that the dealer should have addressed before you ever picked the boat up. I am asking because you said "played with the neutral button" which, if fly by wire means it was not addressed, since the update removes the ability to rev the motor in neutral as the neutral button (you push in to disengage going into gear) is removed with the fix. If not fly by wire, then that is all moot. Also, at least on the VTX, you can manually engage gear on the transmission. It is in the manual on how to do it, not that you would be able to spend 4 days boating like that, but at least you can avoid a tow.

It does sound like the recall was never done, guess he can welcome himself into the 1% of boats affected huh?

-Chris

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seriously, you packed up and went home? what happened sucks, and the fix is probably easy. I would have called local dealers, Malibu corporate office, everything I could.

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to clarify;

It was Sunday so Malibu and dealers were closed. We took delivery of the boat 3 weeks after the date on the recall notice posted here so the dealer should've already got to ours.

I did hire a tech. He took a volt meter to the inputs on the selinoids and was logging inputs from the throttle, which makes me think it's a mechanical issue. The wierd thing is the button on our control doesn't (and never did) move, it just sat in the in position. Is this supposed to be spring-loaded?

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