Blue pearl

Hello everyone, just purchased a 34’ Mainship 200 hp perkins, I thought at $10k this was a great deal, 3rd time out the trany stopped working, left me in Georgesons channel Mayne Island bc, in fairly swift current, I dropped the anchor, just before entering the ( on the rocks ) feeling.
Trying to figure out what went wrong, a close friend and boater told me to try trawler forum for spiritual and mechanical support.

At 10 k it probably was a deal, maybe not a great deal. Perkins can be rebuilt for 10k (probably not needed). Don't panic over tranny issue. Start with the simple,cable linkage etc.

welcome aboard Pete.
Sorry for your troubles with your tranny and good luck.
As mentioned check first the obvious (cables?). Then give details on your model.

L

Borg

I don't think it's a linkage problem, because all of the transmission oil is under the Trany in the keel

Got oil in trans? As Sailor of Fortune said check shift linkage. Could of fallen off or be out of adjustment. If oil level is low could have overheated trans and slipped clutches causing failure. Normally very low oil level will cause trans clutches to apply and release rapidly over and over till they burn out and slip and warp the clutch friction and steel plates. Hopefully you'll find it's the linkage out of whack. Best of luck.

There are no visual signs of an oil leek, to be on the safe side, I feel that I should rebuild the Velvet drive 1425 Borg/warner, although I should probably remove the gen set first because it's seized and would give me some more room to move around, I don't know if I'm just unlucky or does this happen to a lot of us boater die hards.

Wow! I'm a slow typist so missed the above while hunt and pecking. Did you pop a hose or something come loose and dump the oil?

B/W trans have a breather on top. If plugged, oil could be forced out of trans through seals or any other opening. Pour in some more oil and see if trans still works. If yes, take it from there. If no then you know what's next.

Just out of curiosity is the oil red like ATF or brown like engine oil? On my B/W Velvet Drives can use either but when I switched to ATF I lost all the oil in port trans. Thought it went out through cooler then saw engine oil go up same amount as trans went down. Turned out was pumping out front trans seal filling bell housing and forcing past rear crank seal. Strange Huh?

That sounds like my problem

I only noticed the leak when I brought her up to 8 knots for 45 min, but I made sure the oil in the trany was full before I left, the oil was black when I had the problem, put some more in and limped back to bouy

You were actually pumping trans fluid into your engine, was it diesel, what size motor and what type and size transmission

Yes, I've got twin Perkins 4-236 engines backed by B/W velvet drive 92-C trans w/2.93 reductions. First thought oil was going overboard with cooling water. New cooler and still
loosing oil. Turned out was pumping oil into engine sump. Talked to retired B/W expert in Florida factory trained says oil can come out front seal and pressurize bell housing and force past rear main seal. Seal lip on rear main faces in toward engine to keep engine oil in. Outside pressure pushes oil in past lip. New one on me but no other way for trans oil to get into engine sump. Blew me away. Been working on engines all my life and never seen this before.

Welcome aboard neighbour, love your little piece of paradise they call Mayne Island.