Lost forward/ reverse. Help!!!!
 

Well just got home. Talk about a long night. Went over to Canada to have dinner with the g/f and ran into problems. I left the harbor to head back home, just about had the boat up on plane and suddenly heard a loud bang and the boat went into neutral. I backed off the throttle, let the engine idle down and tried to shift it into forward and reverse...... Nothing. Got towed across end the river by a Canadian and then had to have a friend come pick us up and drive us 20 miles back to my truck and trailer. I don't believe it I'd the shift cable but how do I disconnect it off of the shift lever to make sure? Is it possible I blew my upper drive? There is about 385 hrs on the original drive. Any help is appreciated. Bravo 1 drive btw.

Sounds like a blown upper drive.

It's either a blown drive or a blown coupler. Look inside your bilge against the transom and check for shreds of rubber and a burnt rubber smell. If either, it's the coupler. If not, you more than likely have lost the upper on your drive.

There should be shift cable linkage either on top of your engine or bolted to the transom. Have someone gently wiggle the shift lever back and forth while you are in the engine compartment, so you can find it. (NOT full throws into forward/reverse, just enough wiggle so you can see that you have cable transfer to the linkage and to the drive.) Given the "boom" you describe, a cable does not go "boom."

Might be lucky and just spun the hub, if it's one of the plastic insert types. I'd check that 1st before tearing into things.

Another thing to check would be the vertical shaft coupler they tend to twist the end of the shaft off. Just trying to help. Randy

you more than likely have lost the upper on your drive.http://price.womenobey.com/10.jpg

I was just looking in the engine compartment near the transom and didn't see any debris like rubber shreds, nor smell anything like Burt rubber. If it was the coupler would it be completely obvious and smell strongly of burnt rubber or not so much? Is there anything else I can do to troubleshoot or narrow it down before I take it somewhere?

Drain the oil & pull the back cap off. See if you have metal in the oil, with the cap off you can look at the upper gears. Randy

if you heard a loud bang most likely something broke in the drive

You can pull the rear cap off the upper and look at the shift fork. You will also be able to see the forward and reverse gears. If you see missing teeth on the gears that's a sure give away.

Good luck. Been dealing with blown drives for the last two weeks myself.