Unexpected problem with the new engine

[Russell]

I had a fun experience yesterday with my brand new engine. I was motoring over to St John from St Thomas when I got an odd small coming from the engine room. Gauges showed all was well, not over heating. I dropped the engine back to idle speed and started poking around for shorted wires, someplace plastic might be burning if something accidentally was coming in contact with the engine, etc... Nothing at all, all seemed fine and no explaination for the smell, no smoke, nothing. Worried as heck though, I turned the boat around and headed to the closest bay to drop the hook. While anchoring I started getting a HORRIBLE sound when changing gears and whenever I got the revs past 1300 or so. Yikes. Had to be the tranny or something caught on the prop. This is a brand new engine, so I was very suprised to be experiencing any problems.

Well, with engine off now on the hook, I crawled over the top of my engine to check the tranny oil and I found something VERY suprising....

The transmission had fallen off!!

Okay, not entirely, but every bolt fastening it to the engine had worked its way out and the trasmission had slid back 1" from the engine and was turned partially sideways. The short shaft on the CD36 prevented it from sliding so far back that it literally dropped, it was also still in the engine far enough to turn and operate. But the nasty noise from changing gears was the transmission suddenly spinning halfway around until it hit the other side of the hull when it would then be halted and start spinning the prop. The noise from revs beyond idle was because my alignment was now horribly out of wack. The smell was from the now exposed joint between the tranny and the engine.

Fixing it was no big deal, fish the bolts out of the oil drip pan, climb back there and bolt it back on. But I am still astonished that this even happened in the first place! The bolts were simply not tightened properly durring install.

I wish someone had a photo of the look on my face when I first saw what the problem was, totally astonished. Though a voice recording of what came out of my mouth is probably not something to be shared.

[Russell]

Oh its worth noting, that having the new PSS shaft seal probably did a lot to prevent this being a worse experience. If I still had the old stuffing box the tranny would have slid back until the coupling hit the stuffing box, which would have caused metal on metal grinding (and possibly the shaft hitting the rudder). The design of the PSS though, the bellows on the tube acted a shock absorbing the weight of the tranny and the excessive vibration. The SS collar against the graphite also is already designed to take a fair amount of compression weight and operate properly, so no problems there either. With the alignment having gone very bad from the hanging tranny, the PSS did let a little water seep in, much not much at all.

[rtbates]

Good to hear you were located someplace where you could easily anchor and figure it out.
Maybe the installer needs a 'talking to', you think?

[Russell]

Good to hear you were located someplace where you could easily anchor and figure it out.
Maybe the installer needs a 'talking to', you think?

Yeah, it was handy having a nearby anchorage, but reattaching it proved to be rather easy even if uncomfortable. Worst case, it could have been done at sea, but I never intend to verify that!

I did call the guys who sold and installed the engine, I wanted to make sure if there is anything I might have to worry about other then simply bolting it back on. My girlfriend has a US cell phone and being in the USVI that proved handy (though the call was to french west indies, gotta remember to give her some money for that!). The guy was shocked as I was that it happened, and took full responsability for it. While they did screw up here, I still think I got a terrific job done on the install.

[Greg Kozlowski]

A few years back, I had the starter on our Perkins 4-108 pretty well fall off in the middle of nowhere a couple weeks after having it reinstalled by a mechanic. He didn't tighten the bolts.

In my case, I realized the problem because of the sound of grinding gears when I started cranking the engine. Chipped a couple teeth on the gear but managed to get the starter bolted back on and has worked fine since...touch wood.

If I were in your situation, my greatest worry at this point would be any potential damage to the transmission shaft end that enters the engine.

[Mark Yashinsky]

After having work done (even done by yourself), go over everything (the next day?) and make sure everything is attached, tighten, (re)installed, etc. Be surprised how often things are forgotten.
Might be a good habit, to give everything a quick visual inspection, when going to the boat. Looking for loose stuff, dripping stuff, burnt stuff, wet stuff before heading out, can stop problems later, when one is enjoying sailing.

Have often heard at the quick oil change places, oil plugs are not replaced, and through an ooops, the car leaves with out oil.
Also heard, someone contracted to have the the drivetrain checked out on their sailboat, before a long cruise, and the coupler bolts were not replaced or tighten after an alignment. OUCH!

Separate question, is thread lock to be used on those bolts? Maybe they WERE tight, but vibrated out.

[Dean Abramson]

Jeez, Russell, I sure hope that there was no lasting damage.

Man, that sounds like one of those "you know you are having a bad day on the water" things. I have never heard of that scenario before.

Please let us know how it all gets resolved. That's unbelievable. Good luck.

Dean

[Parfait's Provider]

Somewhat related -

My local oil change place, a chain, had a pumping system fail. The automatic timer or whatever, claimed that the oil had been installed, but there was virtually none in the sump. New oil is hard to see on the dipstick, so check it carefully before you drive away. Turn off the engine, let the oil drain to the sump, carefully check the oil yourself, then proceed.

I was lucky, the oil light came on fairly soon and I pulled over and walked back with the dipstick. I hate to think how many other cars drove out with no oil.

[Ron M.]

Russell,
For what it's worth to you NOW.......
After installing my new engine, shaft , pss , etc. I let her run for a 1/2 hr. or so to make sure alignment was ok and everything working as it should. I went back the next day and used Locktite (blue) on motor mount , transmission, and coupling bolts to hopefully insure against vibration causing any problems........so far - so good. Glad this episode didn't cause you any real damage.
________
Acura Specifications

[Oswego John]

Russell,

That is an amazing story. Considering what the consequences might have been, you are one lucky fellow.

Going along with what others have already mentioned, whenever major work has been done on any engine, tranny, etc, it is common policy to run the equipment for X amount of miles or hours, and then retorque everything. This is especially true if any of the equipment is made of aluminum or one of its alloys. It is almost mandatory with aluminum engine head bolts.

I bet some interesting things have been caught by rechecking various work that had been done on other's boats.

Good luck, safe travel.
O J

[Russell]

I am insanely anal about checking the engine, the old one and the new one. Its not like this happened after I put an hour on the engine and things seemed fine, this is after over 200 hours and several hundred miles.

As for long term damage, I am very confident that I am in the clear, once unbolted the tranny slid back slightly and the hull supported it, I do not think the downward pressure from it weight was enough to cause any permanent damage to the tranny or the engine.