how to inspect transmission

[Jim Hardesty]

The recent posts of transmission failures has me concerned.  While it's being discussed thought I'd ask, what checks can be done with transmission in place?   Is there any checks that can be done with the boat out of the water?  Is there an expected life, number of engine hours?   Please be specific, if necessary, to manufacture and model.
Thanks in advance,
Jim

[scgunner]

Jim,

I too am a bit puzzled over these transmission failures. I always thought they were fairly bulletproof. The only checks, in or out of the water, that I'm aware of are making sure the tranny fluid is regularly changed and kept topped up and making sure the shift linkage ia functional and not binding.

Like the motor mounts in an earlier thread I've never seen anything on expected service life expressed in hours or years, for that matter I've seen nothing about a TBO. These trannies are fairly simple, two gears, F&R, being driven by a pretty low HP motor (21 to 35) in turn driving a prop in the water, a medium which provides 100% slippage which greatly reduces any stress on the tranny. Short of a prop strike or a hard wrap you'd think they'd run indefinitely.

[Stu Jackson]

Jim,

Kevin's right.  While there may be a few of them seemingly happening in a big spurt, I think of it as: Golly, it's sure nice of skippers to share their issues and their solutions while gaining knowledge about parts & suppliers along the way for all of us, to avoid reinventing the wheel.

Timing?  I recall the late Dave Davis once wondering about the shelf life of our exhaust risers.  They ranged anywhere from 900 to 1600 hours, almost 2:1!  That makes it a hard call.  Other than to keep track and maybe bookmark or take notes in your Boat Book about specific parts and sources for issues of a major nature if it ever happens to you. 

Sometimes it's an IF and not always a WHEN.