96 205 Transmission slipping? Cavitation?

[Cariboo]

I bought a 96 PS 205 a few weeks back with a known small transmission leak. Aside from a messy bilge, the boat has run perfectly the 3 times I've had the boat on water. I've only had to put a little transmission fluid in since buying the boat.

Yesterday, after cruising around the lake for 3 hours, I dropped my wife off at the dock so she could get the trailer. Since my wife takes forever to back down the trailer, I thought I would take the boat out away from the ramp and do a few power slides. My 90 PS 190 was pretty fun to do power slides in, so I wanted to try it in my 205.

When I accelerated hard, the transmission seemed to slip after a few seconds. I checked my transmission fluild and it seemed rather high. It was up on the middle part of the dipstick, well over the line. When I checked it earlier when we first got on the lake, it was just above the line (yes, I did wipe the dipstick off). I tried accelerating once more and the same thing happened. It wouldn't start slipping immediately, it slipped after a few seconds of hard acceleration.


Here are my questions:

1) How and when is the best way to check transmisison fluid? I assumed that the boat would need to be warmed up, running and out of gear. I know this is a rather elementary question, but in my 96 205 it didn't come with either a maintenance or owners manual. I just wanted to cover all the bases.

2)Cavitation? I did a search for transmission problems on this sight and cavitation was mentioned as a possible explanation. Can someone please let me know what the hell cavitation is as it relates to boating?

3) I read on another post about putting soapy water in the bilge while your out on the lake and this would clean out the bilge. I'm wondering whether I put too much soapy water in the bilge. If I have a slow leak in one of the seals, could any of this soapy water gotten into the transmission? This could explain why the transmission level was high. Could the water have gotten into the bellhousing and effected anything?

4) Before getting to the ramp, my wife was driving the boat and beating the hell out of us on the rough water. I'm wondering if this could have caused something to break or jar loose.


5) Why would the tranny slip now after running perfectly all day?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[T Scott]

i am not a tranny expert, but I do know that you should check the tranny fluid when the boat is warmed up and idling in the water. As far as soapy water in the bilge, that is a great way to clean it. I have found that dishwasher soap works best as it does not cause tons of "suds". Give this thread a few hours to cook.....there are lots of guys on here that know their stuff and are more than willing to help with great advice.

[bret]

Check the tranny fluid when cold and warm, that way you' be familiar with where both levels are. You should be at or just slightly above the top line when warm. Mine used to slip in a hard right hand turn, tech from the factory told to add 1/4 quart, made a new mark on the stick and it has never slipped again.

A prop that is out of balance, barely damaged can cause cavitation, also if something is caught on your strut or fins, this can cause the water to deviate around your prop and cause cavitation as well. Did you notice any trash under the boat after you got out of the water?

[Cariboo]

Check the tranny fluid when cold and warm, that way you' be familiar with where both levels are. You should be at or just slightly above the top line when warm. Mine used to slip in a hard right hand turn, tech from the factory told to add 1/4 quart, made a new mark on the stick and it has never slipped again.

A prop that is out of balance, barely damaged can cause cavitation, also if something is caught on your strut or fins, this can cause the water to deviate around your prop and cause cavitation as well. Did you notice any trash under the boat after you got out of the water?
No I didn't notice any trash. To be honest, I was in such shock that I didn't think to look at anything other than the dipstick in the transmission.

[FrankSchwab]

Soapy water in the bilge is a great way to clean it out - but for god's sake, don't dump it in the lake!
A much better approach would be to fill it with water (3-4") at the lake, put it on the trailer, dump in some DAWN dishwashing soap, drive 10 or so miles down to the local self-serve car wash, and pull the plug there. The self-serve car washes around here have appropriate grease seperators so that this isn't an environmental problem - they encourage engine cleaning, for example.

Be careful with the amount of water that ends up in your bilge. There is a known issue with many V-Drive transmissions that if the output shaft (prop shaft) seals are operated under water, water will be drawn into the transmission. Bad thing!

/frank

[BriEOD]

Was this boat on eBay?

[Cariboo]

Yes it was.

[Cariboo]

I called Mastercraft technical services and they informed me of the proper way of checking transmission fluid: warm up the engine and check the fluid right after you turn off your engine.

Apparently I was always low on fluid and didn't know it. I've read a few people on this site say that the boat needs to be running while you check it. I now know that is incorrect.

I just pumped out all of the tranny fluid and got only 7/8" of a quart out of the transmission. Even if there is still additional fluid in the lines, I know that is way too little fluid to have in the tranny. I put 1.75 quarts of new fluid in and the level is just above the top line on the dipstick.

I hope that I didn't do any damage to the tranny by running the fluid so low. I will test out the boat out this weekend and hopefully everything will be OK.

Also, has anyone found the transmission leak stuff to work in a Mastercraft transmission?