velvet drive concerns

[Saints Rest]

I took over Louis' 31' Monteray Clipper "Nirvana" this Spring out of Wrangell after being a Dr's boat up in Juneau 5 years before. It has a good history and I sure like the boat other than the roll she has on the outside. Being a good old boat, she was maintained well but patched and changes duly noted for instead of fixed Bristol. It has an exhaust leak in the turn up the dry stack that I will fix this fall but for now, I'm just trying to make money till my Fall Job takes over. I was out on the last day of fishing before the Silver closing and I pulled into the fish plant to pitch off. It was quite busy so I had to wiggle my way in between a tender and a seiner. I forwarded and reversed several times to walk her in all at about 900 rpm. (Less rpm makes her slow to respond and below 800, she shakes terribly). All seemed well when I left. We went out to pick up the smokehouse quota on monday and dern if there wasn't a halibut sport fisher with about 10:1 scope on his anchor and as much on his line out past the Valner light. I gave him a wide berth. I turned a bit sharp to get back on the drag by sucker rock and fouled my pig lines in the turn and clutched her to neutral as I got the gear in to untangle the mess. (too light of a ball: saving on lead prices). When I put her back in gear, she sort of slammed in, instead of velvet drive smooth. About a half an hour later she made a clunking, grinding, howling noise for a few seconds aft of the drive coupling and continued to make a weak howl when in gear for the next half hour, then quit(all seemed well). Of course I pulled into Bar harbor late at night and did my usual song and dance to work my way into her slip and I noticed that she slammed into forward and reverse. She pulled out of neutral fine but slammed going into gear, ( a thunk instead of sweet roll into gear) more forward than reverse. All at 800 rpm. Tranny fluid in the Velvet Drive is still pink and clear, full at engine shutoff. She seems fine but..... I don't know this Suzi 240 engine or the BW Velvet drive and am paranoid something is going wrong. I will check the propl and make sure I didn't pick up any line on the shaft and check the stuffing box while I'm under water in my dry suit. Then check the stuffing box after I remove the center hold during the closure. Any comments are welcome, I wish I had Bob on the Holiday or Eric on Das Boat here in town to help me so in the mean time, I wait for response. Thanks, Whojigger at Saint's Rest

[Saints Rest]

My solution was to drain the ATF fluid and refill it. I ran the engine and Trans for half an hour then topped it off. Still a little harsh going into forward but at this point, no concern.

[RUSSELL]

try removing atf and run delo 30 , might help been running it for two years on this boat and for years on last and had no problems. Its a little thicker than atf and seemed to smooth the shifting out. Might also want to check woodruff key in shaft coupler.

[Saints Rest]

I'm going to change over to Delo 30 wt this weekend. Should I flush it out with something first? any suggetions? By the way, she has smoothed out a fair amount and doesn't seem to be an issue. I sure learned a lesson to make sure and have the rpm down (I shift in or out below 900 for sure) Now to track down the exhaust leak, and a 1000 little things. Thanks for all the help!