Hello all

Hopefully someone on here can help me out a bit with my problem. I have searched and not really found any helpful info.
So here is the story sorry if it gets long winded. Over the winter I removed the engine, drive, and transom assembly from my 1992 Mirage Trovare 257 because the transom seal was leaking. I was very happy to find that the transom was not rotten and that everything cleaned up well and went back together well. I installed new motor mounts and new rear mount bolts and hardware when reinstalling the engine. I checked and adjusted the alignment and think I got it good. After getting it all back together and fighting with the carburetor shop that did a terrible job rebuilding my carb.... I got it running and took it for a spin on the lake. After some tuning of the carb on the water I got it to the point I tried getting on plane....Just as the boat got on plane I lost all forward thrust. came to a stop and popped the hatch didn't see any problems. Tried reverse and nothing there too. While waiting for a tow I continued to play around with it.

I took the shift cable of the bracket on the engine and put the drive in reverse and forward by hand and could feel the de-tents but still now thrust. I could see the drive shaft moving while the engine was running and drive in nuetural but didn't think to check that in gear. After getting towed to the dock and returning home. I removed the drive thinking maybe I screwed up the shift cable attachment. Didn't find a problem and put it back together. shift the drive into forward and the prop turns one way not the other then reverse and turns the other way but not the other... Which I understand is normal. I removed the drive again and checked the coupler splines and they look ok too. Today I took the top and back caps off the drive and I don't see any metal debris in the fluid. The drive shifts well and turning the input shaft makes the prop spin in both forward and reverse.

I am starting to run out of ideas here. I was not beating on it when this happened just lightly accelerating to get on plan. There where no problems at the end of last season other than a leaky transom seal and a leaking carb. The only thing I did was adjust a poorly set shift cable. I have since purchased the tool and will be getting it set perfectly before going back together.

Any help or ideas of things to check would be appreciated. My plan for this week is to do a little adjustment to the engine alignment. Put the drive caps back on and fill it with fluid. Set the shift cable using the special tool and take it to the launch and run it in gear on the trailer and see if with a load it looses thrust.

The rubber in the coupler failed would be my guess

Wouldn’t I be able to see the rubber blown out?

With the boat in the water, engine running, shift it into gear, look down between the engine and transom assy, you should be able to see the input shaft, if it’s not turning, it’s the coupler

Most likely the coupler or prop hub is spun. You said you saw the driveshaft spinning, so you may get lucky and its only the prop hub.

Sometimes when you loose coupler it will still move at idle but won’t carry any more load than that.

Thanks for the help. I was thinking the coupler but I just can't see anything wrong. I guess that makes sense as I didn't get the engine alignment perfect. I am going to try and reset the engine alignment again tonight and put it all back together and take it to the lake and try running it on the trailer and see if the drive shaft spins while in gear with a load.

Howard