V-Drive locked up! Low hours 07 Super Air Nautique 210

[ers906]

How high does the water have to rise in the bilge to enter th V-drive vent?

[Hogdog]

V-Drive locked up! Low hours 07 Super Air Nautique 210

Is it possible for this to happen on a DD? Obviously not with the v drive but with the transmission or anything else? One instance there was 8 inches water in the bilge because somebody forgot to put the plug in. No names on that story. Lucky it was caught 10 min after put in the water and it didn't sink.

Have run boat for 10-15 hours since that happened and no issues but I am curious.

[tomld]

The other question is could the transmission have been damaged when the v-drive seized? We were surfing at 10mph when it seized and stalled the motor. What are the odds it could have hurt the trans?

[migs]

why is your warranty only 3 yrs? are you the original owner? Isnt nautique warranty 5yrs? Or do you need to purchase the extended warranty to push it out to 5 or 6 years?

[tomld]

Nautique doesn't advertise it well, but the 5 year warranty doesn't cover motor/transmission parts. Those are covered by PCM and for only 3 years.

[tomld]

So the more I research this, I think there is no way the water level in the bilge was high enough to allow water in the vdrive vent. Now I don't have the boat here, but I assume the vent is on the very top of the vdrive. The water level that I saw in the very rear of the bilge was 3" deep tops. The water level by the front of the v-drive (where the large t-handle drain plug is) was minimal, maybe half inch tops.

So i'm thinking a cracked vdrive cooler sounds more likely. Can someone explain to me how the vdrive cooler works? I assume it's built into the vdrive and any internal crack would flow water right into the vdrive. Is that correct?

[gride300]

all i can tell you is after you get it fixed if it's on a trailer to remove the plug and place it in your drivers cup holder or glove box. secondly, always put your toggle to bilge on when not used but sitting in the water. other than that i hope you get everything fixed. it's a boat. things go wrong; especially right when the warranty goes out.

[DealsGapCobra]

Sorry for your trouble.

I would think that it would take a LOT of water to reach the vent but I am unfamiliar with the v-drive layout. Without question, that unit should be disassembled but I am not sure it matters why other than to prevent a recurrence. After typing that I had another thought. If the V-drive is water cooled and they did an improper winterization, is it possible that a line froze and ruptured? If they put up any resistance to disassembling the unit, I would take it to another mechanic for disassembly.

[ers906]

Does anyone have a picture of where the vent in the V-drive is? I would think that the water would have to be very high to enter it, so I would think that a frozen hose is a definite possibility

[tomld]

Yes, to me it some sort of freeze damage seems most likely. The boat was never submerged and the water level never even reached the bottom of the engine. I'll get that v-drive disassembled before anything else.

[ers906]

I would definitely recommend checking hte casing yourself, and if there is any question taking the part to a neutral mechanic for evaluation. I doubt the mechanic that winterized your boat would be as forth-coming if it was improperly done. Some mechanics are great and honest, but I tend to be cynical

[core-rider]

On page 31 of this document http://www.planetnautique.com/Correc...7/2007apcm.pdf Figure 11-4 you will see a crude drawing of the v-drive. At the top of the pic you will see what looks similar to a valve stem you use to fill your car tires. That is the vent. At the bottom is labeled the raw water drain plug that should have been removed for winterization. I assume it may be difficult to access and may have been skipped when winterized.

On another note, I can't believe the PCM v-drive is considered "maintenance free" to PCM.

[tomld]

So the reason the dealer is quoting a new vdrive instead of inspecting and possibly rebuilding is according to them, the policy with PCM is they don't provide any rebuild or reman exchange programs. He said they never even open the vdrives, because PCM only deals in new replacements. Yet when purchasing a new vdrive, PCM keeps the old drive to inspect how it failed.

Needless to say I picked the boat up from the dealer today, if for no other reason than they're parts and labor are way to high compared to anyone else.

To be honest, the removal and replacement of the vdrive looks pretty darn simple.

[DealsGapCobra]

Just make sure you find out why it was full of water. If you can arrange it, sending it to PCM for inspection would probably give you the best evidence if it was a winterization problem.

[LT206]

I hate you are having to deal with this. So this situation sounds plausible? - you take it to the dealer for winterization; they forget to drain the Vdrive; sits outside and freezes; goes out on you the first trip of the season; dealer won't take it apart to see if it has evidence of freeze damage; and won't admit to forgetting to drain it.....

Sounds like they screwed up and now you are going to have to pay for it. Not right - and pretty scary for everybody because of the system that PCM has set up. So what if it get's back to pcm and they take it apart and find that it has freeze damage? Does the dealer then admit they screwed up? After you've already paid another shop to fix it? Tough situation.....