offthefront

iTrader: (1)

Same thing Happened last Saturday ..... we had just left the Dock and boat would not plane ... weny back to house put it on the lift and pulled the props and found the twisted prop shaft .... pretty sure we didn't hit anything ... no damage to prop .. . Strange thing is after original event drive would shift fine and idled back to dock ...... went to pull boat out and on the idle back to boat ramp decided to try it again and low and behold boat poped up on plane and ran fine back to boat ramp ..... Difference was about 400lbs less weight in boat ...Strange event ....... notice spline twisted direction ...

ThisIsLivin

Similar thing happened to me. I was cruising along and felt a soft thud. I stopped the boat and raised the drive checked the prop, ran my hand along the leading edge of the lower unit and nothing. I never pulled the prop the check the prop shaft I thought everything was ok. cruised the rest of the weekend and no issues. Next weekend rolls around and I decide to take some family out to this secluded bay on an island 20 miles away. We all have a nice swim and head back cruising about 70 and all of a sudden the boat dies, try to pull it out of gear and it's stuck. I knew then we were in trouble, we are in the middle of Lake Huron on a Sunday with no boat traffic. Fortunately we were able to flag a boat down to tow us to the nearest harbor. My shafts didn't look as bad as yours, but it was enough to stress crack the gears and they went the way Merc gears go.