Blackhawk Breakdown

[thriller]

Sooner or later when you keep pushing the envelope somethings got to give. Well..today after spending a great day on the ocean with friends (4 total in boat) we were headed back to the launch. Blasting up the river I see the opportunity to open it up. Having never had 4 people in the boat before, I found it quite an adjustment to handle..ie: tabs.. Just to maintain a horizontal type attitude meant more tab down...Anyways, As we were headed to the launch I trimmed up and felt/saw/speed increase to the point where we were hitting around 60/65. Then out of nowhere this wave type swell launched us into orbit..As we landed transom/leg first with throttle backed off I did a quick sweep to ensure everyone was ok...Everyone fine, (Thank God) I went to put the boat in forward gear and the engine reved up like I had the button pushed in (just as you would do if you wanted to rev it up) well, I pulled back on the stick to find neutral where it would normally disengage and give you forward and reverse control again,,Not the case..I couldn't find a gear??? No forward or reverse..Only neutral...When I push the control forward all it would do is rev up
Long story short I had to get towed in by a tug that I blew by only moments before..
My thoughts are that the drive cable snapped in the leg just where it connects at the leg...Any Blackhawk owners out there had this happen?? before..Trust me , This boat rides the ****s with 4 souls on board..Had at least 3/4 tank of fuel but seemed so transom heavy and these girls were maybe a buck 20 wet...Longer trim tabs are in order for this ride...hopefully I didn't snap anything..Talk about hang time.. we must of been airborne for 2 one thousands..Yikes...Good thing my wife wasn't one of the riders or she'd be listing it on e Bay as I type..:eek!:

[Greg Maier]

My thoughts are that the drive cable snapped in the leg just where it connects at the leg...Any Blackhawk owners out there had this happen?? before..Trust me , This boat rides the ****s with 4 souls on board..Had at least 3/4 tank of fuel but seemed so transom heavy and these girls were maybe a buck 20 wet...Longer trim tabs are in order for this ride...hopefully I didn't snap anything..Talk about hang time.. we must of been airborne for 2 one thousands..Yikes...Good thing my wife wasn't one of the riders or she'd be listing it on e Bay as I type..:eek!:

You probably blew an upper gear. The shifter cable snapping is probably just wishful thinking. What you should be most concerned about is your wife finding out that you had two girls in the back, and she wasn't one of them :fire:

[rayjay]

..As we landed transom/leg first with throttle backed off...

Did you back off the throttle completely or just enough to maintain the rpm's you were running at?

rayjay

[MOP]

Too much let off on the throttle is as bad as not enough, the prop speed needs to match the water re entry speed as close as possible if not the gears get slammed hard. It take a lot of prctice, I think Greg is probably right.

[Morgan's Cloud]

Might it not also be the coupler ?

When mine failed it was simply shifting from neutral to fwd ..

Just a thought ..

S

[thriller]

I will pull the leg off today and begin my investigation. As far as the wife thing goes, she would be happy :rlol: I took her friends ..

Can this upper gear set be repaired by me? Should be same as a Bravo gear set correct? Just the vertical shaft is unique to the BH..
I'll keep ya all posted on my findings..

Mike

[thriller]

Did you back off the throttle completely or just enough to maintain the rpm's you were running at?

rayjay I had the throttle backed off... neutral...(unsure) Heck, It happened so fast and then it was all over.. Bad-Tat had the same thing happen to him at Cumberland..

[thriller]

Might it not also be the coupler ?

When mine failed it was simply shifting from neutral to fwd ..

Just a thought ..

SHow did yours come about failing? Did you launch and do a hard re entry? Coupler you mean the remote shifter ( like Inside casing)??

MM:wrench:

[MOP]

I will pull the leg off today and begin my investigation. As far as the wife thing goes, she would be happy :rlol: I took her friends ..

Can this upper gear set be repaired by me? Should be same as a Bravo gear set correct? Just the vertical shaft is unique to the BH..
I'll keep ya all posted on my findings..

Mike

Pull the top cap if the case looks OK get it done over with HD parts, Woodsy (Dave) knows of someone up his way that gave him a real good qoute on fixing them.

[Greg Maier]

Merc has an upgrade kit for the Blackhawk. It includes upgraded Gears (XR GEars, I think) Make sure your mechanic uses the upgrade kit.

When I had mine rebuilt, the mechanic put Bravo Diesel Gears in. They are supposedly stronger to handle the torque of a Diesel.

[Morgan's Cloud]

How did yours come about failing?...... Coupler you mean the remote shifter ( like Inside casing)??

MM:wrench:

I have NO experience with BH drives so I have no idea if this is common to them or not, but what you describe.. engine running fine .. (no strange noises ? ) And no shift whatsoever is exactly what happens when the coupler fails in the way ours did. (The splined connector on the flywheel that the power in shaft from outdrive plugs into).

We were approaching a group of anchored friends went from fwd idle to neutral, wait a few seconds.. gentle shift into rev ... nothing there.. coupler kaput just like that !

Assuming that this isn't a coupler problem .. is this something that BH drives do ..? You have to be really carefull then when you get a bit of air huh ?

S

[blackhawk]

Never broken a gear but I would think there would be some kind of noise when you put it in gear? Maybe I am wrong.

Blackhawks are definitely sensitive to people in the back seat. You have to drive it a lot different. Try racing a boat with 5 people onboard in some nasty slop giving up about 6 feet to the boat you're racing!

You mentioned getting bigger tabs, I highly recommend it. I put the 280s on after one full season with the 150s and it makes a huge difference. Only downfall is it does seem to scrub a little top speed but the trade off for better handling is well worth it IMO.

Hope you didn't do too much damage and be thankful no one was hurt!

[aleagles]

If you didn't hear any grinding or cracking I'm 85% sure it's just the coupler. You may of heard it but you didn't realize it when you hit. When you did land from outer space did you slow down real fast (face into the windsheild)?

[thriller]

If you didn't hear any grinding or cracking I'm 85% sure it's just the coupler. You may of heard it but you didn't realize it when you hit. When you did land from outer space did you slow down real fast (face into the windsheild)? This coupler ,,,What's involved and how do i check it .....to verify if indeed this is what happened? Haven't pulled the leg yet so am wondering where else to look

Thanks MOP for the suggestions. I will pull the top plate and take a gander..hhhmmmm Those Heavy Duty gear set's where not on the 95 models but my hull is one of the last #32.. I was led to believe Merc had already done the mod on post 95 MPI/Blackhawk packages..Could be wrong though..:wrench:

[MOP]

From what I have been told the late ones did have the HD gear set, maybe you did do in the coupler. If your input shaft is out of line and you ran hard and long with extra load it is a possibilty. I am hoping it looks good inside when you get the cap off, rather pull the engine than redo the drive much cheaper.

[Morgan's Cloud]

This coupler ,,,What's involved and how do i check it .....to verify if indeed this is what happened?


Put the boat on a water hose ,(make sure it's turned on :biggrin: )
Start 'er up and see if the shaft that comes out of the flywheel and goes out through the transom is turning or not .

Engine will pump water but not shift. If the splines are shot (as mine was) it will make no strange noises or smells. If the rubber is gone you will most likely see bits everywhere and horrible burnt rubber odor ..I don't think it failed this way though !..

I'd be surprise if I'm right on this but keep us advised !

S

[gero1]

PULL THE TOP COVER OFF BEFORE YOU START !!!!!!! if you chipped a top gear it wont always go into gear but if you keep trying it will sending all kinds of small parts of the broken gear thru the drive, trashing it!

[Woodsy]

Guys...

NONE of the original drives has heavy duty gearsets... those came out as a replacement last year for the Bravo's. If your drive hasn't been rebuilt in the last year, it has a standard gearset. Not too sure what the diesel gears are like, but I would assume they are similar if not the same as the HD upgrade gearset.

Gero is right.... pull the top cap BEFORE you do anything... the last thing you want to do is get more filings in the case and ruin it...

Good Luck... hopefully its something really minor... otherwise, I hope you bought a spare drive....

All BH owners should have spares...

Woodsy Von Outboard

[GKricheldorf]

When i burnt up my coupler a few weeks ago it smelled bad, smoked and made a god awful noise when the motor was running.

I pulled the top off my upper and a piece of the gear was broken off and lodged itself into the other gear stopping the drive shaft from spinning. Hence the burnt coupler.

If your coupler is trash - you will need to pull the motor.

Good Luck - expect the worst, hope for the best.