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This is a Hail Mary…talk to me like I’m a 5 year old… Was cruising leisurely across the lake when it felt like the boat slipped out of gear. No forward, but reverse still worked. Towed to the dock. I pulled the tranny cover off and when I shifted into forward, ATF _gushed_ out of somewhere. Had to remove a bunch of stuff to get at it (panel with three big electrical clips, gas line, etc) but it appears to be coming from a hole on the housing itself. No threads that I can see, it looks like maybe a ball bearing is supposed to plug it? Had a couple guys come out and they had never seen this before. They said the sensors on either side blow all the time, but this little piece isn’t even on the diagrams. Trying and failing to imbed pictures: https://ibb.co/wg9364y - screwdriver pointing at hole/port https://ibb.co/Qm3tgnp - general location (before dismemberment)

I am looking for help. Last weekend I experienced the "loss of CAN Signal" with some erratic behavior. It was inconsistent, but affected seemingly all areas of the boat except ballast controls, audio, and aux switches. Sometimes it would start immediately after the 4th digit of the code was entered, sometimes it would not start at all, sometimes it needed key start. I tried to disable the 4 digit code and it started as soon as I hit the power button (Scary!) Most times I need to hit the main power button to stop the engine. Gauges all seem to freeze, showing no rpms, voltage, etc. I do seem to see engine, air and water temp. I have gone everywhere that I can find to check grounds, loose connections, etc. I left the one year old batteries on a trickle charger all week. so I am pretty confident in them. Over the past few months I have seen some occasional issues flare up wit the depth finder. For example, when I am floating in 20' of water, the depth might read 2' for a minute or 2 then revert back to a reasonable number. Is there any easy way to isolate this from the system to identify if a bad transducer might be the issue? When I trace the depth finer transducer wire form the depth finder, it disappears into a stringer before any connections... What other steps can I take? I really don't want to haul this ting out of the water if I can avoid it and I am sure that anything but routine maintenance from dealer mobile crew is begging for a long and expensive process just to troubleshoot. We have alot of summer left and I would really appreciate any advice / education that any of you can offer. I am pretty sound mechanically, but I never have been good at all of that mysterious electrical stuff!

What are differences in the hull and resulting differences in surf wake and wakeboard wake of a fully weighted wakesetter VLX 21 hull for the 2013 - 2014 model year versus the 2004 Wakesetter VLX 21. Specifically the 2013 and 2014 wakesetter VLX hull with Surfgate. I have a 2005 Malibu VRide - 2004 Wakesetter hull - which I run fully weighted - two rear 750 + stock belly + Under bow Nose V Sack + 450 Fat Sack on top of cushion in the bow + 500 Lead wake in the walkway. I use a Ronix Wakeshaper and manual wedge down to surf. I run the Acme 2079 Prop to Push it. The wakesurf wave is phenomenal with a 3 Person crew. I wakesurf and wake foil every session. I love the wakeboard wake but hardly wakeboard anymore. I have to take the boat through a bridge and when lake levels are low I fill the bow sacks completely and barely get through. In 2015 the VLX hull jumps to 27” draft which I believe would be a problem. Not sure what year they started the diamond hull but I assume I don’t want one. I have a dedicated slalom boat.

This past week it seemed that the transmission “slipped” a couple of times. Once in forward while moving from idle to “idle+” while picking up a skier, and in pretty quick succession it did the same thing in reverse. Both times it “slipped” and kind of slammed into gear before I had a chance to bring it to neutral. I brushed it off as going to quickly from neutral to a bit past idle. Skied for another 2-3 hours without any issues. Also, FWIIW, I’m pretty gentle on the throttle. The following day, I was pulling up a skier (after running just fine for 2+ hours) and it did it again. I was on the throttle quite a bit and it got out of the hole fine, slipped at 15 mph or so, and I pulled it back to neutral before it slammed into gear. Drove at varying speeds and in and out of gear on the way back to the house and it didn’t repeat. My wife drove to the ramp 10-15 mph for 1.5 miles) without issue too. Dealership did a quick check of trans fluid, it’s at a good level and clean. They are going to do a water test next week (which is pretty awesome that I have the rest of the week off and it’s going to be 80s...) I asked them to check the prop key to see if that could be a possibility too. Also, I’ll define a “slip” as going from in gear and having power to high rev and no power. I couldn’t tell if it was a no power or low power situation as it happened so quickly. Any thoughts would be awesome, and I’ll update once the dealership gets back to me. Needless to say they are pretty busy. Thanks crew!