Another round of "Troubleshoot the boat"

[gregtay]

Howdy all. This is a bit off topic since it involves a friends Mobius, but it is an Indymar motor and i figured we could all learn a something about our boats from this. We had our boats out this weekend and we broke his We still don't know the diagnosis... so your guess is as good as mine. Figured i would post what happened and you guys can guess the problem. when the shop calls back I will let you know the correct answer. So here is the situation:

2004 Mobius w/ about 240 hours on the Indymar motor

Boat is usually kept in the water and has run great all summer, we towed it over to a lake 2 hour away. Dropped it in the water and drove 2 min over to the dock by our campsite. Set up for the first pull of the trip, skiing w/ a dock start. Boat ran fine but the guy didn't quite get up. Boat came back around and attempted a traditional deep water start. All was going well and the skiier was almost out of the water when something broke. Engine rev'ed (very high) and shut down. Basically something in the drive train let go. We drove our Malibu over to help out and troubleshoot. Engine would turn over and start right up but there was a loud banging clanking sound (not a good sound) coming from the tranny/vdrive (even while in neutral.) No oil in the bildge, fluid levels looked fine (tranny level was a little low, but still in the acceptable range.) All fluids lookd clean (no visible metal, etc.) We shut her down and used it as a towel drying rack the rest of the weekend (thankfully my new Malibu managed 12 people and pulling from sun up to sun down without a flaw.)

My initial guess is an broken engine coupler... but i usually hear of couplers "slipping" not "breaking" and clearly something is broken and spinning freely when the motor is running. My other thought was a broken tranny (not sure what "broken means".. but i guess "locked up" with caused a bunch of other stuff to break. Not sure...but we are hoping it's just a coupler.

I will also throw in that when we pulled the boat out of the water i tried to spin the prop.. it would rotate about 1/4" in each direction, but I could not spin it freely. I am not sure what is normal, but i expected to be able to spin the prop in neutral (and the play in the prop seemed to be a bit concerning.)

Anyway... if you are the type of person (like me) who like to figure these puzzles out and learn from them... then guess away and add your feedback. I should know more in about a week.

[Bake's Marine]

It sure sounds like his flex plate broke. The flex plate is a drive dampener in between the fly wheel and transmission so it eases into gear and doesn't suddly give the transmission full RPM at all once. Check for damage all the way around the bell housing, look for cracks or holes as it's a brittle pot metal and doesn't take much to break it. You can also pull the starter and look for metal debris inside the bell housing.

Other wise if it is the transmission or v-drive, you will be able to hear the clanking noise coming from the drive it self. In order to actually diagnose which one has failed you usually have to pull the drive and v-drive apart and spin each one by hand to figure out which one has failed.

Hope you guys are loving the new Malibu!

[radioman]

Howdy all. This is a bit off topic since it involves a friends Mobius, but it is an Indymar motor and i figured we could all learn a something about our boats from this. We had our boats out this weekend and we broke his We still don't know the diagnosis... so your guess is as good as mine. Figured i would post what happened and you guys can guess the problem. when the shop calls back I will let you know the correct answer. So here is the situation:

2004 Mobius w/ about 240 hours on the Indymar motor

Boat is usually kept in the water and has run great all summer, we towed it over to a lake 2 hour away. Dropped it in the water and drove 2 min over to the dock by our campsite. Set up for the first pull of the trip, skiing w/ a dock start. Boat ran fine but the guy didn't quite get up. Boat came back around and attempted a traditional deep water start. All was going well and the skiier was almost out of the water when something broke. Engine rev'ed (very high) and shut down. Basically something in the drive train let go. We drove our Malibu over to help out and troubleshoot. Engine would turn over and start right up but there was a loud banging clanking sound (not a good sound) coming from the tranny/vdrive (even while in neutral.) No oil in the bildge, fluid levels looked fine (tranny level was a little low, but still in the acceptable range.) All fluids lookd clean (no visible metal, etc.) We shut her down and used it as a towel drying rack the rest of the weekend (thankfully my new Malibu managed 12 people and pulling from sun up to sun down without a flaw.)

My initial guess is an broken engine coupler... but i usually hear of couplers "slipping" not "breaking" and clearly something is broken and spinning freely when the motor is running. My other thought was a broken tranny (not sure what "broken means".. but i guess "locked up" with caused a bunch of other stuff to break. Not sure...but we are hoping it's just a coupler.

I will also throw in that when we pulled the boat out of the water i tried to spin the prop.. it would rotate about 1/4" in each direction, but I could not spin it freely. I am not sure what is normal, but i expected to be able to spin the prop in neutral (and the play in the prop seemed to be a bit concerning.)

Anyway... if you are the type of person (like me) who like to figure these puzzles out and learn from them... then guess away and add your feedback. I should know more in about a week.

[radioman]

Howdy all. This is a bit off topic since it involves a friends Mobius, but it is an Indymar motor and i figured we could all learn a something about our boats from this. We had our boats out this weekend and we broke his We still don't know the diagnosis... so your guess is as good as mine. Figured i would post what happened and you guys can guess the problem. when the shop calls back I will let you know the correct answer. So here is the situation:

2004 Mobius w/ about 240 hours on the Indymar motor

Boat is usually kept in the water and has run great all summer, we towed it over to a lake 2 hour away. Dropped it in the water and drove 2 min over to the dock by our campsite. Set up for the first pull of the trip, skiing w/ a dock start. Boat ran fine but the guy didn't quite get up. Boat came back around and attempted a traditional deep water start. All was going well and the skiier was almost out of the water when something broke. Engine rev'ed (very high) and shut down. Basically something in the drive train let go. We drove our Malibu over to help out and troubleshoot. Engine would turn over and start right up but there was a loud banging clanking sound (not a good sound) coming from the tranny/vdrive (even while in neutral.) No oil in the bildge, fluid levels looked fine (tranny level was a little low, but still in the acceptable range.) All fluids lookd clean (no visible metal, etc.) We shut her down and used it as a towel drying rack the rest of the weekend (thankfully my new Malibu managed 12 people and pulling from sun up to sun down without a flaw.)

My initial guess is an broken engine coupler... but i usually hear of couplers "slipping" not "breaking" and clearly something is broken and spinning freely when the motor is running. My other thought was a broken tranny (not sure what "broken means".. but i guess "locked up" with caused a bunch of other stuff to break. Not sure...but we are hoping it's just a coupler.

I will also throw in that when we pulled the boat out of the water i tried to spin the prop.. it would rotate about 1/4" in each direction, but I could not spin it freely. I am not sure what is normal, but i expected to be able to spin the prop in neutral (and the play in the prop seemed to be a bit concerning.)

Anyway... if you are the type of person (like me) who like to figure these puzzles out and learn from them... then guess away and add your feedback. I should know more in about a week.

It will be the flex plate . 240 hours is about when they blow. I know one mastercraft dealer, that has one man just to replace flex plates. he can now do 2 of them in a 10 hour day.