Transmission PM

[Ed Shankle]

Got to talking with a fellow Catalina owner this past weekend and one of the stories she related to me was when their transmission quit and had to be replaced. I asked what their symptoms were prior to it quitting and she said there were none that they noticed. All of a sudden it just wouldn't go into gear. They did have to get a replacement, but regardless of their particular problem, it got me to thinking, what diagnostics are there to determine the state of the tranny? What noise, feel or visual is an indication that something may need to be fixed? Is there an "x,xxx hr" PM that should be done?
Any insights to this?
Thanks,
Ed

[Ron Hill]

Ed : If there are any set of symptoms I've never seen them listed.  The causes of Xmission failure could  be many and that's why I don't think they are listed.  Also I believe that Xmissions are more reliable with fewer moving parts than engines, which is another reason they are not listed.   

[Indian Falls]

Good question!  Was this related to not putting the trans in reverse or neutral while sailing?  the two things in the warnings from the manual?   I've left my trans in fwd a few times while sailing but only for a few hours.  Would this really wreck the trans?  Maybe the PO of her boat owned mine!   I changed my oil and it came out like 20 year old molasses, I couldn't use a ketchup pump on it if I wanted to!

[SeaFever]

In terms of diagnostics I would recommend sampling the oil and sending it for analysis. You'd be surprised how much information can be had from the Oil Analysis. When I acquired my used M25 I sent the oil for analysis and then flushed the TX couple of times and sent it for testing after a couple of weeks of testing and running in the garage. From the results I observed that the PO may not have changed the Tx oil for a long time (not surprising).

Personally I am going to periodically have the oil for both the engine and Tx tested