21v broken driveshaft

[Path125]

Hello, 2000 21v riders edition.
After a few hours of wakeboarding the boat made a bad noise, engines rpm came up, so i turned it off asap. engine and tranny seemed all fine, but the driveshaft was loose in the coupler. Took it to the shop, they said the driveshaft is broken in half in the coupler. We didn't hit anything, prop, fins are all intact.

Seems the only place to get them is from Tige themselves and they don't have any in stock, so need to custom make it. 850$ for shaft, 35$ seal 4hrs labour, total is 1500$.

Has this happen to anybody? Any place to get a replacement?

[CP3]

You have pics of the shaft?

[Path125]

No pics, marina just called to tell me the bad news, so haven't had a chance to go and take a picture.

[NICKYPOO]

Wow, I would say that is rare. Certainly not impossible but, rare. There's not a whole lot of info on here about broken drive shafts because we just don't hear about them very often. A couple of members know about such things so, hang tight, someone will give you some good info on whether or not you're getting bent over. My knee jerk reaction is that $1500 ain't that bad. Post some pics when you can.

[Timmy!]

The shaft should be about $200 or so, check with another shop if you can't find one because $850 is ridiculous. My buddy just broke his 3rd one in his Epic and it is definitely rare but it only cost him about $450 to have it fixed each time. He is working with the people from Epic right now to figure out what is wrong with his boat and they think it is that the engine/transmission needs to be realigned.

[Timmy!]

Here's a pic of the one that broke this past week:

[Timmy!]

Just make sure that the shop you are using knows what they are doing. My friend took his to a guy who heated the shaft to get it into the coupler and that's why 2 of them broke, they were damaged by the heat. The shaft needs to be pressed into the coupler. This is actually his 4th one but the first one getting broke was due to hitting a sandbar.

There's not a lot of labor involved if all they are doing is replacing it, remove the prop, replace seal, press new shaft into coupler and put the prop on. I would have them verify that everything is aligned properly or it will happen again.

One last thing, if it happens again and the whole thing falls out, the boat WILL take on water very quickly! If you can recover the prop and shaft, get it back in there as quickly as possible and tie it up or your boat is going to sink!

[talltigeguy]

I would be surprised if you cannot find a replacement at Skidim.com

[a012331]

I had to have my strut and shaft replaced over the winter. Mine is an I drive but it still cost $1800 and that is with 10% off.

[ajholt7]

http://www.skidim.com/products.asp?dept=1011

[boatwakes]

$1500 total is really good. You can get a custom shaft made from AQ19 or AQ22 at Henry H. Smith in Michigan (800)338-8900 but you have to know what you're ordering: Tige is single taper, 1 1/8" shaft, keyed coupler and you must get the specific length correct, the entire shaft length, in order to make it right. Have them check the strut bearing as well, it's a $50 part and might as well change it while it's out because it probably was damaged too. Tolerance on a new strut bearing to shaft is .010" max and coupler face alignment is .004". Was the coupler damaged at the mating face or just the shaft snapped going into the coupler?

[Tantrum1]

I have had it happen to me on my 04 20V, but I think the shaft might have been cracked when I bought the boat, as the metal was all corroded except for about 1/4" of "shiney" metal were it finally snapped. Take it to a machine shop and they can make you one, thats where I got mine done for $500, and that included pressing in the coupler...But I had to remove my V Drive my self to re-install the shaft.