Thread: Drive Plate
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Old 03-23-2008, 09:52 PM   #1
2bucks
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Join Date: Oct 2007
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Drive Plate

I think it was this forum where I spoke earlier about always having a plan B available and never depending on the reverse gear to stop you. This weekend it happened to me again. Second time in 28 years.

We went out for a couple day trip from Pt. Orchard where the boat lives, to Kingston WA. Pulling in to Kingston everything was fine until we were 10 feet from the dock and I put the gearshift into reverse to pull the stern in and stop the boat. There was no feeling of slowing or of prop pull into the dock. A little throttle confirmed there was no reverse thrust available.

As we were drifting slowly anyway, the wife stepped off onto the dock and snubbed the line on the cleat and brought us to a nice safe stop. I left the engine idle, planning to do some investigation after securing the boat. About halfway into that chore the engine chugged and stopped!

Pushing the starter button produced nothing. With the floorboards up I could hear the starter drive push forward but no rotation. With a wrench on the damper pulley nut, and standing on the wrench I discovered I could not turn the engine over either.

There were no odd noises, no clunks, rattles or other oddities in the 2 1/2 hour trip.

Long story short, I decided it had to be the drive plate. 2 hours later I had many pieces of springs, wire, and drive plate in my hand. A friend had been sent to Seattle to pick up a new plate when the problem was predicted. He also helped R&R the flywheel which is a real bear with the limited amount of space I had. I just slid the tranny back 6 inches and left it hanging from the floor cross member. Remember of course that the flywheel on a 120 Lehman is 87 pounds and a machined fit so it has to be reverse pressed off and lined up prefectly to be pulled back on with the bolts. Pieces of spring had wedged into the small space between the flywheel and the block which is what eventually killed the engine upon total failure.

I had thought about adding a drive plate to my stock of spares, but just hadn't done it yet. I probably won't need another for a few years but there will be one on the boat when I do.

A little know how, a few tools and a good friend to bring pieces to you on a Friday night make boating adventures a little easier to deal with.

Ken Buck
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