Dear Afourians,
On a sail today I had two issues. The first was that it would not shift into reverse and was hard to put into forward. This was a new issue, because it has always been good at shifting. In 18 knot winds and 3 foot waves, I took the cover off of the transmission and did not see anything amiss. Finally my friend said that he could shift into reverse, and I don't see what had changed to allow this to happen. When I came back up, the shifting seemed normal.
Then I restarted the engine, and it made a terrible racket. Seemed to me that something was rattling around the moving parts of the engine. Then it went away and the old atomic 4 sounded like a sewing machine, the sound that I was used to. Then the noise came back again, then it went away. Then the noise came back again, then it went away. Finally for the last mile to my marina it sounded fine, and the reverse worked and the shifting was normal.
What the heck went wrong, and how do I diagnose an intermittent issue. Are they connected? Would an part that fell off of the reversing gear cause that noise. Can that part make it into the crank shaft area?
Best
Jim
On a sail today I had two issues. The first was that it would not shift into reverse and was hard to put into forward. This was a new issue, because it has always been good at shifting. In 18 knot winds and 3 foot waves, I took the cover off of the transmission and did not see anything amiss. Finally my friend said that he could shift into reverse, and I don't see what had changed to allow this to happen. When I came back up, the shifting seemed normal.
Then I restarted the engine, and it made a terrible racket. Seemed to me that something was rattling around the moving parts of the engine. Then it went away and the old atomic 4 sounded like a sewing machine, the sound that I was used to. Then the noise came back again, then it went away. Then the noise came back again, then it went away. Finally for the last mile to my marina it sounded fine, and the reverse worked and the shifting was normal.
What the heck went wrong, and how do I diagnose an intermittent issue. Are they connected? Would an part that fell off of the reversing gear cause that noise. Can that part make it into the crank shaft area?
Best
Jim
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