I have a 32 Fountain Fever. Twin 502 mags with Bravo One outdrives. Boat is a 96. Last run of the season I went on about a 115 mile trip, which involved about 20 miles in the Chesapeake Bay. Seas were about 4 feet. Boat spent a LOT of time out of the water. Made it to my destination, parked the boat, no issues. When I went to leave, I was getting the boat up on plane, and something on the Port side just quit. Boat fell back in the water and I limped it to a landing on one engine. Shift levers feel normal. There is no noise. Boat wont go in forward or reverse. No clunking, funny sounds ect. Mechanic suggested it was the coupler, its not. So Im assuming its somewhere in the drive. Would a cone clutch just go from working fine to completely dead in a matter of seconds? There was a load on the boat as I was getting it up on plane and it broke. Im going to pull the drive, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on what might cause this. I appreciate your help. Also, I noticed that the port drive that seems to be bad appears to have been replaced at some time with a used drive. The Starboard drive looks original and has low water pickups, the port drive does not. Would it be important to get a drive on the port side with a low water pickup on it, or fix the one that is on there? Dont know if its a big deal that the drives are not the same. Boat is a 32 fever.

Thanks

Jim

Being it's both directions, I'd bet
on a broken vertical shaft, clutch shaft or propshaft.


Breaking a propshaft is something I've done

Could be any of the above.
Solid props? Spun a hub?

Im assuming that running the boat hard in seas like that and lauching it the way it was being launched would produce enough force to break one? It seems like it would have broken while it was being run, versus breaking after the fact like it did. Maybe I cracked it or something?

I did a very similar thing years ago. Parked my 35 fountain and it was fine. Started on plane and then fell back to the port side. Long story short, broken vertical shaft for me. Like mentioned above, its probably one of the shafts in the drive unless u just mushed your lower gears.... but, you would hear them when you turn the prop shaft by hand. Best of luck

take the lower part of the drive off,i think six nuts and the whole assembley will drop off.if the v-shaft wroung off,most likely it will be at where it is splined,weakest part of shaft.when i wrung mine off,when i droped the lower unit,the broken peace fell out on the floor.let me know if i can be of help.brad

I t happened to a friend of mine, running hard then nothing , upper gears in drive ( top end )

Thank you all for your suggestions. It makes sense to look towards a drive shaft based on the way it happened. I just cant believe it would break it like that. I guess I just didnt expect that, although I have had a few hard runs in the bay like that, maybe it was just time. Anyone have any thoughts on the issue of one lower unit having low water pickups and the other not?

Thanks so much,

Jim
Richmond VA

Go see Justin at Jordan Point, He'll hook you up, he's one of the best merc drive mechanics available. alot of the time when merc has a problem-->they call Justin, don't dilly dally with anyone else.....

96' is a straight bottom, correct? Unless your X-dimension is way high, I am not sure having a low water pickup is critical for your application. That being said, I would want them identical on both sides which ever way you go.

Just my 2 cents.

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