I had removed the hydraulic lines while doing maintenance a month or so ago so to clean the coolers. I topped of the fluid accordingly when I was done.
I did lots of other work like alignments since I had installed new mounts. There was the slightest bit of ATF on the back of the case at the bottom of the circle object that still has paint on it. In the photo I am holding an hex wrench to it.
While using the boat after all of my maintenance I noticed a odd noise coming from the starboard throttle on the bridge, sort of an odd harmonic being transmitted up the cable but only at around 900 RPM or so. It was not coming from the clutch lever so I did not look into it much.
After a couple trips on the boat I noticed fluid getting scattered around the coupler (and everything around it) so the leak where ever it is coming from got worse. The output shaft is dry forward of the flange and so are the nuts which leads me to believe the output shaft seal is fine. The hydraulic lines and fittings are dry and the neutral safety switch is dry. The only thing I can feasibly think the leak is coming from is the round thing that the hex key is point to. But it does not appear to be a serviceable part or even something that can be tightened like a bolt.
As a precaution I pulled out all the fluid and inspected it for water since I just cleaned the oil coolers. It was a bit high. Book calls for 2.65 quarts and I had about 2.8 to 2.9 quarts in it after I found the leak. Did I just over pressurize the this gear by having too much ATF in it?
Anyone ever dealt with anything like this? I lost some sleep over this last night as you can imagine. I hope I have overlooked something simple or just overfilled it.
A common leak point on those gears is the output shaft to coupling splines. They are a course spline and if the coupling gets even a little loose fluid leaks by the spline between the faces of the coulings as it spins. If you have a circular patern thats another clue. Never saw that plug you pointed to leak unless severe rust.
Messing with the alignment and couplings may have broke the sealer on the splines at the coupling it it was loose which does happen.
Break the couplings apart and see if there is fluid inside unless you know for sure it is leking out that plug.
Yeah, some rust. I will clean it up and put it back together with some CX Heavy. What about some of those bolts or hex bolts on the back of the housing, could they leak? Guess I will have to clean it up good and run it for a bit to better isolate it. Never ends.
I did get engine data to the MFD. Very cool, although these engines both read 15 PSI boost at idle. Not sure what that is about.
wmachovina wrote:Kevin isn't 14.7psi normal sea level air pressure? 15
That rather depends on the calibration of the sensor/gauge... Some (air) pressure units are calibrated to show actual pressure... I.e. they disregard the normal atmospheric pressure... Others, so called, absolute units start at 0 pressure... Those would show the normal atmospheric pressure when there's no boost... And most turbos don't pressurize the air at idle...
I don't know if your gear is similar to my Hurth 630As (ZF 63A) or not. I had a similar problem last year were I suddenly had a transmission leak. It drove me nuts for a few days, and like you, lost sleep over it. Mine was a significantly bigger leak than yours and took a while to isolate. Also, the rear seal seemed to be dry like in your case. Problem was found to be one of those bolts on the back of the transmission. One is a plug and I think two of them are ports which could allow leaking. One of the fittings on mine had a STEEL compression washer/gasket which had rusted enough to allow it to leak. Easy fix once the problem was found. I replaced with a copper washer.
I would have been surprised if yours had developed this sort of problem in the relatively short time you have had the transmissions in service. Mine were in their 14th year. But worth a check.
Bill,
I think you nailed it! The right side of the bolt you can see the washer disintegrated when I touched it. Of course the ball bearing and spring came out with it......hope they go back in easy. This is the bolt on the right below the neutral safety switch. I should probably do the one on the left as well. I guess more detent parts are likely in that one too.
That ball/spring assembly is NOT a regular bolt thing... It's either a pressure relief valve or a check valve of some sort... Make sure the new washer will have the same thickness as the old one (regardless of material) because a thinner/thicker washer will mean the release will require more/less pressure to open if it's a pressure relief valve and, it will mean that more/less pressure will be required to open if it's a check valve... Neither would be good and could possibly mean major adjustment issues if you get it wrong...
Kevin,
Not to be a pain in the butt, I would check all of those bolts with washers on them or even without washers, (1) was it the pressure sender on the tranny switch ( the bolt with the heavy corrosion on it to the outboard side of the tranny at the 1 O'clock position above the hex tool or (2) was it the one at the 10 O'clock position. The one at the 4 O'clock position looks like it is very suspect, also look at the back side of the cooling hose for your dripless shaft seals, I bet there is wear on that hose where it's contacting the actual tranny housing.
I haven't had any luck selling my boat at 25K, I am going to have the side decks and house repainted and do a few other odds and ends to her then the price goes up by 10K. I need to get her sold so I can get my knee fixed, I can't afford to have 2 properties to pay for the next 6 months while I get back on both legs, no more crutches and pain hopefully after the operation.
I hope you don't have anymore problems with the engines or trannies, you deserve a break from working too hard.
Pete Fallon
Pete,
The bolt at 1 oclock in relation to the dummy plate(gray painted part by hex wrench) was the one I thought it was. I put a new crush washer in. Filled with fluid, tweaked alignment again since coupler was apart and put it all back together again. Fired up the motor and inspected. Immediate leakage from the 5mm hex at the 12 oclock position and you could hear the hissing. When I took the dipstick out last night there was a relative lacking of "whoosh" noise that you normally hear when breaking the seal. I should have taken that as a clue.
The one at 4 oclock holds the control block to the transmission case. Not a potential for leakage there I don't think.........
I have the other crush washers for the remaining bolts on both transmissions but I will need to locate some smaller ones for the 5mm hex plugs. I agree with you they are all suspect and better to do now than in the middle of the straits. I can get them all done in about 15 minutes I think. After that I am sealing the deck. Never did it because I like the ability to just lift it out to do work. To much water leaking on to control block and coupler.
I don't know what to say about your boat. For that price it is a lot of boat compared to the junk that people are paying top dollar for these days. Kinda makes me mad!
I hope things go well with the knee for once. You need a break more than me. Keep us posted.
