Are You Damaging Your Gearbox when Changing Gear?
Clutch Dog Gearboxes
Outboard motors and most stern drive gearboxes (like Mercruiser’s Alpha drives) use a Canine Clutch set up for choosing and shifting gear.
If you select gear slowly and careabsolutely with these gearboxes you will really be damaging the gear box.
Do you hear a grinding or chattering noise when choosing either forward or reverse gear?
In case you do, something needs to vary or in the future your lower unit will not have any drive and it will consistently bounce out of gear.
Firstly I will explain how the lower unit/gearbox works.
They have an input shaft that is pushed from the engine or ‘power head’. (This enter shaft is called the driveshaft. The driveshaft has a gear connected to the underside of it called the Pinion gear. The pinion gear is always in constant mesh with the forward and reverse gears. When ever the motor is running, the pinion gear is rotating the forward and reverse gears. Between the forward and reverse gear there may be the mechanism that selects gear. This is called the Clutch Dog.
The Clutch Dog sits on the propeller shaft that protrudes out the back of the gearbox and drives the propeller. The Clutch Dog has an internal spline that is in fixed mesh with the propeller shaft.
Image the Clutch Canine having a entrance and a back. At each end it has massive, sq. teeth. When you select gear on the motor you move the Clutch Canine forwards and backwards along the propeller shaft.
When the Clutch Canine is moved to pick gear it engages with the same sized sq. teeth on the particular gear that’s being engaged.
Remember that each of the output gears (forward and reverse) are rotating as they’re in fixed mesh with the pinion gear (input gear).
If you choose gear slowly, the Clutch Canine will slowly move into mesh with the gear. This gradual movement causes the tooth of the gear to ‘skip’ over the tooth on the Clutch Dog. This steady skipping wears away the nice sharp edges of the tooth and will finally cause the motor to jump out of gear.
Tips on how to Select Gear
· The way to keep away from doing damage to your gearbox is to positively choose gear. This means to literally bang the engine into gear so you hear one clean engagement of the gearbox, not chatter.
· You should also pause in neutral when shifting from forwards to reverse or vice versa. This permits the propeller time to stop spinning.
· Don’t shift into reverse when you are moving forwards quickly. It creates a huge quantity of pointless force on the gearbox (and engine). Sluggish the boat down of the airplane, come back to an idle and pause in neutral to let the boat gradual right down. Reverse is only a reverse, not a break…
Engine Idle Speed Too High
· Another cause for damage being carried out to the Clutch Dog is your idle speed might be too high. When you motor is idling higher than around 900rpm in neutral you will be doing damage every time you are deciding on gear.
So…
· Make positive your idle speed is set to what the Producer recommends!
· Positively choose gear
· Pause in neutral between gear changes.
· Let the boat gradual down earlier than changing into reverse
· Have the gear oil modified every a hundred hours or yearly, which ever comes first.
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