Carver Owners Forum

Thanks everyone for your welcomes and support! Work got in the way so I've been away a bit.

The fail on my first transmission was the forward internal drive shaft, broke on an angle across a 2" span. When it finally let go it took out the pinion gear and part of the casing. The second transmission hasn't been diagnosed yet. Doug Gorham at Gorham's Diesel in Braintree, MA sold me the second transmission for the same price as my first one, even though the retail was $2000 higher. I was going to send him the old transmission in case he could rebuild and sell it, but he said everyone does what I do... by the time you pay the labor to remove and install it, you don't put a refurb back in...

The new transmission is in the boat, far easier than the starboard side without the stairs to the Captain's quarters over top of it. While I'm at it I'm having the props balanced, rudder seals packed, and new dripless seals. I was going to have the shafts checked also, but we under-estimated the shaft length and blocked the boat about 4" too low to clear. The cutlass bearings look great, so unless the props are out of balance I'm not going to worry about the shafts for now. There was some minor vibration but nothing alarming.

My mechanic warned me that dripless seals take 2-3 hours to "seat", and during that time they squeal like angry cats and smell like an electrical fire. Should make for an interesting shake-down cruise this spring. "Don't worry honey, it's supposed to make that noise and smell like that."

Thanks for the response on the stereo... confirms my plan to go with wireless speakers throughout the boat...

I have a couple more questions for anyone interested though.

DAVITS!! The boat has what appears to be some sort of receiver for cradles or some sort of Davit system, which the broker told me is factory on the Carver 455. The 1" square tubing that runs from the transom to the bottom of the swim platform have extensions that come to just below the waterline about even with the edge of the platform. Can anyone point me to a Davit system that works with these mounts? I have not found many pictures of Carver 455s, and none have shows any davits.

Another question... I love the vintage VHF radio that still works -- once you realize it returns to "international" channel 16 whenever you hang up the mic and you have to change it back to "USA". But I want to add a second fixed radio w/ speaker. I have not started taking things apart to figure out how to get new wires to the radar arch yet. Anyone have advice on what path to take? I also love my 10" Garmin all-in-one, super deal for $1k, but while I'm up there adding a VHF antenna I may as well put up an external GPS antenna.

75 days until NY boating season!! Enjoy everyone!

Naut Ohm (On the radio it sounds just like my old boat... Knot Home... I liked it better than Knot Home II.)

Glad you're getting her all fixed up.

Sounds like she may have had an impact in the past that weakened the shaft.

I don't know that I agree with the comment about not putting in a refurbished transmission, it's easy for a new transmission supplier to say though! Of course a new one is the best way to go but a rebuilt that's done right can last for decades too and cost much less.

nautohm wrote:QR_BBPOST ....My mechanic warned me that dripless seals take 2-3 hours to "seat", and during that time they squeal like angry cats and smell like an electrical fire.....

Only face seal types do that and the severity depends on a few things. A big one is alignment, the closer to perfect the less the seating period and squeal. Ensuring the mating surfaces are actually wet before running helps reduce the symptoms too apparently. I've heard about this but have personally never run into it with units I've replaced.

Personally I would be sending out the shafts as well. I mean you've gone this far and eliminating the shafts from contributing to vibration on the new transmissions is paramount. If after all is done without confirming the shafts are true, and you still have a vibration, you'll need to haul out again and check the shafts to eliminate them as the possible culprits. If she's blocked on unpaved ground, get them to dig if they can't lift her in place at this time. We just did that under a customer's boat and I'm willing to bet the ground up here is way more frozen than where you are! Pretty common to do up my way if removing shafts was an after thought post blocking. Did they at least dial the shafts in place? You can't duplicate shop conditions but dialing on the boat will give you an idea of their condition.

Pictures of the davit hardware you're talking about might help the guys determine what you have.

Thanks Viper, I hear you about the shafts. I've helped dig holes in the yard to clear rudders and shafts... unfortunately I'm on the pavement blocking in several boats. That excellent last-out first-in spot. We have to run the boat to test the transmission (and make sure forward is forward and reverse is reverse) so I want to have the shaft metered while we do that. Although it doesn't show how true the shaft itself is compared to a shop, it does include the alignment to the transmission and the motor mounts. The rear mount is the transmission, so all that was disturbed removing the transmission. If it doesn't meter well all put together, I'll have to have them move the boat to a different spot and block it higher.

The transmission is a ZF 301. There aren't too many parts, but they are all expensive. The shaft that broke in the first one was a $3500 part. Basically if it needs more than 1 component then it's not cost-effective with labor. I was told they can be hard to get though, up to an 8 month wait if they need to go back to ZF to have one built... so refurb can be the best option for time.

The torque and ratio are identical in fwd and reverse so it doesn't matter whether you get the A or the B... you can swap the direction at the helm, just move the cable to the other side of the wheel to reverse it.

I'm new to this site, need to figure out how to attach a picture of what I assume is a davit setup.

Happy and safe boating everyone!
Naut Ohm
(Scott)

I added a "Mechanical Stuff" folder to my photo gallery with some pictures of the davits mounts. I'm thinking some cradles mounted to a 1" hitch receiver that could pin to the support that's integrated with the swim platform support.

gallery/album/87