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Finally Back On the Water!


jtrovato

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For anyone that's been following my thread about the shaft packing adjustment that turned into a bent driveshaft and bent v-drive coupler, I'm happy to report that today, after 7 weeks without the boat, I finally got back on the water!

For anyone that didn't follow and doesn't feel like reading the pages upon pages of BS, the short story is my former dealer, East Coast Flightcraft's service department is terrible and they have no idea what they're doing and I'm 99% sure they bent my driveshaft and v-drive coupler when they took the engine out of the boat to try and get the packing nut loose.

I pulled the boat from them and had it fixed by a much more knowledgeable mechanic that did it for 1/8 the cost that the dealer wanted. Got it back tonight and took it out for a ride and it's running good as new.

I have appealed to Malibu but they are saying the stories between me and the dealer are too different so they're not getting involved and recommend that I work it out with the dealer. Probably not gonna happen!!

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Good to hear your back on the water.

Lesson #1 for the crew... Never take your boat to East Coast Flightcraft, especially for a packing nut adjustment.

Edited by ryangb
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Sorry to ruin all the fun here but I have been around this kind of thing long enough to know that this sort of thing isn't always the techs fault. Like Pete suggested salt water or crossed threads at the factory.....

Example: The other day I was changing the axle shaft in a subaru. The job pays 1 hour and I can knock one out in 20 min. Well the shaft was seized in the hub and no puller in my snap on master set was touching it. I had to pull the axle out with the steering knuckle and take it to the hydraulic press. By this point I gave up trying to save the hub and maxed out the press. Still didn't budge. Let it soak overnight with penetrating oil, heated the hub, maxed out the press again and finally she came out. As a result ended up replacing the bearings, seals and hub. A 20 minute job resulted in a car that had to stay the night. Normally I would charge the customer 1 hour....this time I charged the customer accordingly.

I still think this post might have some merit. Copied from an earlier post.

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Glad you are back on the water and she's running good. That was an unfortunate ordeal you went through. Mine will be 3 weeks in the shop on Thursday. You feel like you're are being held hostage when your boat is in there. By the way, hows your drip rate?

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That's good to hear. I had been following and just read through the last couple of pages. It had my blood boiling, and it's not my boat! I cherish my time in the summer and I can't imagine going through something like that keeps me off the water like that.

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Sorry to ruin all the fun here but I have been around this kind of thing long enough to know that this sort of thing isn't always the techs fault. Like Pete suggested salt water or crossed threads at the factory.....

Example: The other day I was changing the axle shaft in a subaru. The job pays 1 hour and I can knock one out in 20 min. Well the shaft was seized in the hub and no puller in my snap on master set was touching it. I had to pull the axle out with the steering knuckle and take it to the hydraulic press. By this point I gave up trying to save the hub and maxed out the press. Still didn't budge. Let it soak overnight with penetrating oil, heated the hub, maxed out the press again and finally she came out. As a result ended up replacing the bearings, seals and hub. A 20 minute job resulted in a car that had to stay the night. Normally I would charge the customer 1 hour....this time I charged the customer accordingly.

I still think this post might have some merit. Copied from an earlier post.

While I will agree with you that it's not always the tech's fault, this time it was. The boat has never seen salt water and the threads were not cross-threaded, or else I'm sure they would have added this to their list of excuses of why they couldn't get the job done.

Even if we disregard the whole issue with the packing and move past that to the bent driveshaft and v-drive coupler (which magically appeared after the engine was removed and was not like that when I brought it in or I would have been vibrating like crazy), the tech's approach was to replace the shaft, then put the entire boat back together and take it for a water test, only to find out that the v-drive coupler was bent too (which was visible with the naked eye if you spun the prop and looked at the coupler, saw this myself when the competent repair shop looked at it).

So the next approach from ECFC was to remove the entire engine and interior again and replace the entire v-drive assembly to solve this problem. This was when I pulled the boat and gave it to a competent mechanic to finish the job, which only really needed one piece on the v-drive and didn't require removal of the engine or interior to complete the job. A $1200 repair vs. an $8500 repair that the dealer/tech wanted to perform.

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Glad you are back on the water and she's running good. That was an unfortunate ordeal you went through. Mine will be 3 weeks in the shop on Thursday. You feel like you're are being held hostage when your boat is in there. By the way, hows your drip rate?

Drip rate is right on now, maybe a bit higher rate, but much better than it was before. It was a constant stream at idle before, and now it's about a drop every 4-5 seconds.

  • Like 1
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While I will agree with you that it's not always the tech's fault, this time it was. The boat has never seen salt water and the threads were not cross-threaded, or else I'm sure they would have added this to their list of excuses of why they couldn't get the job done.

Even if we disregard the whole issue with the packing and move past that to the bent driveshaft and v-drive coupler (which magically appeared after the engine was removed and was not like that when I brought it in or I would have been vibrating like crazy), the tech's approach was to replace the shaft, then put the entire boat back together and take it for a water test, only to find out that the v-drive coupler was bent too (which was visible with the naked eye if you spun the prop and looked at the coupler, saw this myself when the competent repair shop looked at it).

So the next approach from ECFC was to remove the entire engine and interior again and replace the entire v-drive assembly to solve this problem. This was when I pulled the boat and gave it to a competent mechanic to finish the job, which only really needed one piece on the v-drive and didn't require removal of the engine or interior to complete the job. A $1200 repair vs. an $8500 repair that the dealer/tech wanted to perform.

Anyway the good news is your riding again! And I see the point now you would have known about a bent shaft before u took it in.

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I paid them through insurance. But I am talking with Malibu to see if I can get some of that money back. Or at least have there be some consequences for this whole ordeal.

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