Tige MD- Transmission problems??

[Ruune]

Had a little problem yesterday- We were out riding on medina, and I was pulling a hard circle to turn around and pickup a downed rider. about 1/2 way into the turn, it felt like I hit something, or spun the prop off the shaft. I immediately put it in neutral and shut it down. upon restarting it, then slowly putting it into gear I hear a grinding, from what I can only assume was the transmission, or the V-drive itself. I was not able to obtain any thrust in forward or reverse. Also, upon putting the boat on the trailer, the shaft and prop appear undamaged, and there was no markings from impact with anything. The only thing I can figure is that something is out of alignment in the drivetrain, and the gears arent meshing correctly, or somehow the gears broke. I'm just glad its still under warranty.

I'm just wondering what its going to entail.

[tigetek]

this might not be as bad as it sounds. i found a couple of tiges last year that had the wrong length bolts installed in the propshaft coupler. the bolts were long enough for the nut to tighten but not long enough for the bolt to reach the nylon lock in the nut. tige notified all there dealers of this possible problem. we only found a hand full with this problem during our pre-delivery inspection.
the drive train in these tiges is as close to bullet proof as you can get. as long as there is the proper amount of fluid in both units they tend to do just fine. when a tranny or v-drive fail they usually don't make any grinding noise. it is more like a slipping clutch in an old car.

take a look under the transmission and make sure the porpshaft is still connected to the output shaft on the bottom of the v-drive.

since it is under warranty your dealer should be able to fix this in less than an hour. if by chance it is a tranny or v-drive then it might take a day or two. when we had some tranny's failing a few years ago mercruiser would send out a new tranny and we would have it in a couple of days. they will not let the dealer open up the tranny to see whats wrong, they want it back broken. walter machine is the same with their v-drive, they want to see why it failed. so, don't let anyone tell you they have to rebuild it , that is not how it works.

to change either unit is a 2-4 hr job. not too bad.

make sure you take all your gear out of the back storage areas. it will be in the way and you don't want to piss off the mechanics.

[Tige M.D.]

ruune, that was my post above. my computer was logged in under my lead mechanic, tigetek. sorry about that

[Ruune]

thanks TigeMD...
I'll check the propshaft- fluids should be ok too, since I changed the tranny fluid at 75 hours. I kinda figured it might be the prop coming off the shaft at first, but the propshaft slipping out makes a lot of sense too. Other than the general concept, I dont know jack about these trannies, but I can appreciate that they want the unit as-is for failure analysis. The boat has about 140 hours on it, so its gotten a fair amount of use in the past year.

I'm taking it to the Ski Dock in Austin (already spoke to Charley), and I'll keep this thread updated.

I just feel lucky that we broke down in a spot that allowed us to drift into the launch/beach area at pops place, in medina. Then, I happened to have a buddy nearby that came and took me to my truck... on the OTHER side of the lake.

[Tige M.D.]

out here in most of us go to the colorado river. if you are going to break down, it always happens DOWN river from you camp.

well good luck, i hope it all works out smooth...

[Ruune]

yeah... we cracked the block in my uncle's glastron a couple years ago. That was downstream from where we launched at Needles marina.

I'm wondering- will there be any play in the propshaft? I've got the boat garaged at the lakehouse right now, and its about 30 miles away. I'm planning on taking it up to Austin on Friday afternoon.

[Tige M.D.]

call me 951/737-9801 i'm here till 5:30

greg

[Ruune]

I get out of work at around 2:30 your time... I'll give ya a call this afternoon! Thanks!

[lee]

If the bolts came loose from the coupler there will be a lot play as the shaft will be laying loose in the boat with just the strut for support.

[Ruune]

I had intended to take the boat in last weekend, but inclimate weather prevented it... however I did look at the driveshaft. it seems that the shaft looks mis-aligned, and there is a little bit of front to back play... no lateral movement though.

[Tige M.D.]

did you find any nuts or bolts in the bilge? the pss shaft seal will not allow the shaft to move very much. but, if you can see that it is misaligned then it is probably loose.

[Ruune]

didnt find anything, but once I saw the misalignment where it goes through the hull, I decided that I should really have the dealer look at it (warranty) and called it a night.

[Ruune]

well... when they initially looked at it, they said that there was a broken pin in the coupler. Was going to be picking it up on Sat AM, but when they tore it down today, they found that the propshaft was broken. I figured "wow... what are the odds of that?" Then I was told that there was a visible defect on the propshaft- where the break occurred. So, I've got to wait another week.... which doesnt really bother me as much. What does bother me is that my red gelcoat is sitting out in the elements for another week. I could understand if this was due to neglect, abuse, etc... but when the propshaft has a visible defect that caused it to break inside the coupler... thats not cool. Not cool at all.

[Hoots]

Ruune, hopefully the Ski Dock will have you back on the water soon. Sorry to hear about the drive problem. Let us know what the final outcome is. I think my boat was put together within weeks of yours so I hope I don't have the same problem.

[Ruune]

Yeah, Charlie and Guido have been taking good care of me. I'm concerned about the boat being outside for another week. I've got a parachute that I use to cover it, but I dont know if thats going to be enough to protect it. I keep it indoors, so I dont really have a reason to fork out 500 bucks for a real cover. The Ski dock doesnt have any they could put on it while its waiting for service... understandably this is their busy season w/ everyone wanting to get their boats ready for the season.

Another thing that concerns me is that the boat has less than 140 hours on it and in 11 months, I've had seating surfaces replaced, drivers side tower base (was coming loose), both board racks (one was cracking, and both had dryrotting straps from the factory), and the propshaft breaks... all due to defects. What worries me now, is whats going to happen when the warranty is up? Am I going to have to fork out 3k a year to get the interior redone for tearing seams and stitching coming undone?