Transmission fail

My wife and I are new Monk 36 owners, and we were getting a “lesson” in docking by maneuvering in an empty section of the marina. We were on the fly bridge; I was at the helm. I was nudging her in and out of reverse and forward, with the rpm at 600 or so, when I went from reverse, to neutral, to forward, and didn’t feel anything engage when I pushed the lever (stick? gear shift?) to forward. I tried it again. The transmission was stuck idling in reverse.

Needless to say, we backed into the slip behind us, bumping hard enough to dent the swim platform. We had sense enough not to try to stop it with our arms or feet, but it was still un-nerving.

As it turns out, the lever in the salon was in reverse when we went below to use that station to steer the boat. The transmission worked fine from there. Our guide stayed below, and I went up top. I detected no movement from the transmission stick when it was shifted from the cabin below.

Has anyone had this happen?

Thanks.
Mike Horsfall
M/V “Blue Monk” Monk 36 #107
S/V “Sarabande” Cal 25

Greetings,
Mr. MH. Sounds like you've got a broken control cable between upper and lower helm. Remove and replace. Can be easy or difficult depending on routing and how much is sharing the chase spaces...

Could be as simple as cotter pin or clevis or screw coming out. Inspect interior of helm controls.

Ski in NC said:

Could be as simple as cotter pin or clevis or screw coming out. Inspect interior of helm controls.

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Yes! I keep an Allen wrench handy to tighten my upper helm shifter retaining screw that likes to mysteriously back out.

sunchaser said:

Yes! I keep an Allen wrench handy to tighten my upper helm shifter retaining screw that likes to mysteriously back out.

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Blue lock tight will solve that

sunchaser said:

Yes! I keep an Allen wrench handy to tighten my upper helm shifter retaining screw that likes to mysteriously back out.

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Have you considered thread locking compound? Or if there are enough treads in the hole, using a second screw to lock the first?

Had this happen once on our GB50 when coming into a slip in Petersburg, AK. We had dual single action throttle and gear Morse shifters. Was on flybridge and had gears in forward. Coming in a little hard because of the current and when I went to put gear in neutral it wouldn't respond. Tried to put it in reverse and this just sped up the engine! Somehow managed to run down to the pilot house and threw shifters in reverse w/ throttle. Missed ramming the dock by about an inch. I was told that people at the head of the slip were scattering as we bore down on them. Turned out that a nut on the FB throttle shifter and loosened and jammed. Loctited all the fasteners after that!

Greetings,
Ignore my comment in post #2 and take the other offered advice FIRST. Apologies. I jumped to exclusions....

aboatman said:

Have you considered thread locking compound? Or if there are enough treads in the hole, using a second screw to lock the first?

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My first consideration was a nearby Allen wrench that scared the nut into staying put. Aluminum (soft) thread handles so need to be careful.

I had a throttle cable come loose from the controls at the helm on our previous boat. Normally I never touch the wheel or the throttle controls once I am in a marina, but on this day I was dealing with a strong wind and needed a little boost. Routine turns into panic in an instant.

On our Broom 42 we have a changeover switch at the lower helm position. You activate it to either 'upper' or 'lower' helm, once you select 'upper helm' the lower helm controls are locked. Vice versa for the 'lower helm'.
If anyone wishes to buy one I will find the supplier and post it here on TF.
I hope this helps someone.

Yes, another one here. Mine was stuck into forward. No damage done except to my pride.

Check the clevices at the top/bridge control AND at the inside control. As mentioned a cotter pin or a nut has most likely come loose.
Mine were nuts. Upon reassembly I used Loctite #222 SMALL SCREW, not the other more powerfull lockers. The blue would be ok but for this application the 222 would be better.

Gosh, I thought mechanical devices were impervious to failure, and that only new fangled electronic devices could fail? Sorry, I couldn't help myself. But in all seriousness, this is a good illustration of how pretty much anything is subject to failure.

The linkage at the transmission popped loose on approach to a dock in our Californian 34. Could not reverse, but had room to turn away & anchor 'til I could figure it out. interesting sensation.

twistedtree said:

Gosh, I thought mechanical devices were impervious to failure, and that only new fangled electronic devices could fail? Sorry, I couldn't help myself. But in all seriousness, this is a good illustration of how pretty much anything is subject to failure.

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TT

Your comment got me to thinking. My hands on followings and observations during the past half century of equipment whether cars, boats, heavy equipment or snow blowers finds that vast improvements have occurred. These have been brought about by all manners of innovation and invention in electronics, machinery, engineering, design and construction techniques. Revolutionary in fact if one looks at the resource industries.

Reliability, economy, efficiency and innovation spanning all industries has been earth shattering. Look no further than auto transmissions such as the PDK I have in one of my vehicles. Or induction systems on all IC engines. Or industrial applications of microprocessors and process control, or yada yada. What an exciting last half century as technology has erupted. Boats included.

Sorry for the thread drift.

chc said:

The linkage at the transmission popped loose on approach to a dock in our Californian 34. Could not reverse, but had room to turn away & anchor 'til I could figure it out. interesting sensation.

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Broke a shifter cable recently that felt much the same. In my case, it was stuck in neutral when anchoring...away from any docks. Lucky me!

I found that I could manually select fwd on the stbd tranny and start it in gear to provide fwd stbd thrust. With that knowledge, I continued fishing for 3 days, then returned to the marina with both engines. As I approached, I shut down the stbd side and docked as a single. If I really needed stbd fwd thrust, I could have started the stbd engine. Fortunately, it wasn't needed.

Swish!

Good idea when coming into harbor is to check your gears before getting into a tight spot. Just go to N and then bump R. Then carry on.

In thinking, I realize that I used to do this and lately have not. Maybe I should take my own advice!!

Ski in NC said:

Good idea when coming into harbor is to check your gears before getting into a tight spot. Just go to N and then bump R. Then carry on.

In thinking, I realize that I used to do this and lately have not. Maybe I should take my own advice!!

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Same here, thanks for the reminder

Ski in NC said:

Good idea when coming into harbor is to check your gears before getting into a tight spot. Just go to N and then bump R. Then carry on.

In thinking, I realize that I used to do this and lately have not. Maybe I should take my own advice!!

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This is good advice. Ever since I slipped a coupler, I do this fairly hard annually or so. Last thing you want on a urgent reverse is to have the shaft leave the coupler.

And before one asks "why do I need to back down quickly". is a fishing thing!

diver dave said:

This is good advice. Ever since I slipped a coupler, I do this fairly hard annually or so. Last thing you want on a urgent reverse is to have the shaft leave the coupler.

And before one asks "why do I need to back down quickly". is a fishing thing!

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Not just fishing. I've had to clobber reverse hard to avoid another boat. We won't discuss fault.

Great advice.

Thanks for the suggestions, methods, and stories. Knowing I’m in good company helps. I’m awaiting the results from the technician, then I’ll learn to maintain it myself. I’ll report on the diagnosis. Thank you!

I learned on old direct reversing engines. I always make sure of shifting before doing any maneuvering. Twice I had issues. Once a shaft collar broke and the other was a break in linkage to an old style manual transmission. Both times I had twins, so I docked like a single. Lot to be said for twins, especially in the ocean or remote places.

Lepke said:

I learned on old direct reversing engines. ...

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That mustuf killed a lot of mosquitoes on a back and fill?

MikeHorsfall said:

Thanks for the suggestions, methods, and stories. Knowing I’m in good company helps. I’m awaiting the results from the technician, then I’ll learn to maintain it myself. I’ll report on the diagnosis. Thank you!

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Mike, it will be interesting to hear the results.
Thank you.

And the boat yard says...

I got the results of the diagnosis, and the estimated repair costs: Apparently we have a bad control cable, which they recommended replacing. The $60 part is a 17’ shift cable, which will take 6 hours at boatyard prices to fix. We’ve ok’d the repair, since we’re not at the boat for a month. I’d love to open things up myself and see if this is something that I could do in the future, or possible eyeball from time to time. Is this a DIY kind of thing? Thanks again for your attention. MH

"Is this a DIY kind of thing?"

In most cases it certainly is .

The cable being removed is first disconnected from both ends , and then an attempt to move it is made.

Frequently it will need some crawling to find a wire tie someplace that holds it .

When free , one end is taped to the old cable and slowly it is used to pull the new one into place.

Frequently the job is a PIA as stuff , hoses , extra wiring etc has been added to the cable chase over the decades.

Have fun,,,,

MikeHorsfall said:

I got the results of the diagnosis, and the estimated repair costs: Apparently we have a bad control cable, which they recommended replacing. The $60 part is a 17’ shift cable, which will take 6 hours at boatyard prices to fix. We’ve ok’d the repair, since we’re not at the boat for a month. I’d love to open things up myself and see if this is something that I could do in the future, or possible eyeball from time to time. Is this a DIY kind of thing? Thanks again for your attention. MH

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Yup...like FF says.

I just replaced my 16' stbd shift cable a couple months ago. I felt the same as you but SoF assured me it wasn't so tough and he was right. Fortunately, my boat has great access to all areas where the cable runs.

I removed the inner cable for measurement and ordered it on Amazon for under $50. I got it installed in about 2 hrs but tackled 2 other projects that I found needing attention in the process. I found cracked mahogany at the mounting plate that needed an epoxy repair and the shifter mounting hardware was 40 yrs old and worn out so I replaced it. (That's another run to the store!!! ) All in all, I probably spent 5 hrs on the combo job.