buergday

I have tranny slipping problems with my 2002 Elite V-Drive sometimes too. They always occur after a long surfing session. I add fluid and everything seems to work itself out. At first I thought the tranny was leaking from the trans cooler, so I replaced it. Still does it. Now I'm thinking that the extreme angle when surfing might cause leakage through the port? In any case, it's never been much of an issue. I just top it off and keep going. If it eventually wears out the tranny, than so be it. Not sure why your v-drive dipstick would be loose though. It's held into the hole with a rubber compression bolt (see photos). You should be able to just stick the dipstick back in and then tighten it up by turning it clockwise. The only thing I can think of is that you may have tried to pull the dipstick out without loosening it first (turning it counter-clockwise), thus pulling the rubber bushing right off of the stick -- and then it fell into the v-drive? I suppose that's possible, but seems unlikely.

I have the same issue with my '02 elite v. It smooths out immediately if I turn slightly one way or the other, but it starts bobbing again as soon as I straighten out. Annoying. Sometimes it helps if there's someone sitting up in the bow, but I would love to know if there's an easy fix that doesn't involve moving passengers.

yeah, my first thought is water in the fuel lines. Check your water separating fuel filter.

I'll take a look at the connections this weekend. Good idea on the tom tom!

I tried, but it doesn't help. Actually, it doesn't seem to do anything at all. 1/2 the time the speedo is correct. The other 1/2 of the time it says I'm going a lot faster than I really am. My wife will be pulling me on the wakeboard and the boat will be barely moving. I'll yell "24 mph!" and she'll say "I AM going 24 mph!" Then I'll tell her to speed up and when I'm finally going the correct speed the speedometer is reading 40. I gotta figure this out before my marriage goes down the tubes!

Is the paddle wheel supposed to drop down further while the boat is running?

Awesome - thanks for the info and link! So if my "regular" speedometer is acting eratically and not displaying the correct speed, it's most likely a paddle wheel issue?

Yes, mine looks similar to that. I think its an older model (2002) though and it has a "ballast" function that I can't seem to get to work. Do you know if the analog speedometer runs off the same paddle wheel as that digital gauge? If my paddlewheel is spinning freely, any ideas on why my speedometer is acting eraticly? Sometimes it's correct and other times it says I'm going 40 when I'm really going 20.

Thanks! That's not the exact model, but it looks close enough. My gauge also has a ballast mode which I don't see in this manual. Anyone know what the ballast mode "gauges"? Gallons? Percentage filled? Also - a question about the transducer. I got under the boat to check the paddle wheel to see if that was the problem with the speedometer. The wheel spins freely. I'm pretty sure that the paddle wheel that I was looking at was a triducer for the Pilot 1 gauge (depth, temp, speed). Here's a link to the triducer that I THINK I was looking at: AIRMAR TRIDUCER. Is there a separate paddle wheel someplace for the regular speedometer, or does it read from the same one? There's another large 4" diameter airmar transducer in the bilge area. It looks like the one below. Any idea what this one is for? It had fallen out of the housing and was laying on the floor of the bilge. I placed it back in the bracket, but I've read in another forum that you're supposed to fill the bracket with antifreeze???

Wondering if anybody might have a PDF or link to the manual for the stock digital depth gauge, speedo, etc? I need to figure out how to work this thing. Mine seems to be stuck in metric mode or something. It's giving me depth in meters and temperatures in celcius. I also can't get it to display mph at all, which sucks because my speedometer gauge is all out of whack too - sometimes it's correct and other times it's WAY off. Any ideas of what to look for? Maybe a sticky paddlewheel or something?

Took the boat out for 3 days this weekend. Everything seems to be OK so far. No slipping. Fluid level is remaining full. I've drained and refilled twice so far. I plan to do it a few more times and then hope for the best. Maybe I can get another season or two out of the transmission before I have to rebuild. Thanks for the help guys!

This has been quite an experience. The transmission cooler came in today. I thought it'd be like $80 or so. Boy, was I wrong. Try $280. $198 for the part and $70 for overnight shipping (which I never authorized or asked for, by the way). I reluctantly paid for the part - not knowing if it would even solve my problem. So then I'm thinking - maybe I'll just hold onto it and not install it yet - putting the old one back on, filling up the fluid and seeing what happens first. That way I could at least return it if I don't end up needing it, and I'd only be out $100 ($70 shipping and $30 restocking fee...lame). And then something really crappy happened this afternoon. I finally got a call back from the dealer that used to service the boat for the old owner. I had them look through all the service records for anything about the transmission or last change of trans fluid. I was floored to find out that one of the reports said that the hull had FILLED UP WITH WATER at one point over the winter of 2008. The owner brought it in to the dealership Spring of 2009 for a full service tune up and they discovered WATER IN THE TRANSMISSION AND V-DRIVE! Are you f-ing kidding me? I had even called this place the day before I bought the boat and asked them to check out the service records for anything out of the ordinary. I guess this didn't raise any red flags for whatever reason. So anyway, during that service they flushed and refilled the tranny and v-drive. They also replaced the steering cable, plugs, wires, impeller, and some other stuff. It was a pretty intensive service. That was at 250 hrs. I bought the boat at 280 hours this spring. I've run it for 20 more and there has never been any slipping until this past weekend when it turned 300. Here's the mystery... The fluid is now low and there's definitely some water in there. It has not been underwater since I've had it. The bilge is relatively clean. There is some oily sludge in there, but it doesn't look too out of the ordinary and it looks old - like regular old engine compartment gunk. So, where did the fluid go and where did the water come from? If the seals are toast and the ATF did in fact leak into the bilge, that would explain the low fluid level, but not the presence water. So, I don't know what the hell is going on. I just said eff it and put the new cooler in tonight hoping for a miracle. I'm going to fill it with new fluid when I get to the lake and run it for a while - drain, refill, run and repeat until its clean. If it runs OK, great. If ATF sprays all over the place and the clutch fuses I'll just have to cough up another $1k and get it rebuilt. It's only money

I drained some of the fluid tonight. It was definitely low, but I'm not exactly sure how low yet since the boat was at an angle in my driveway when I pulled the fuild. I only managed to extract about 1 quart. I'll see if I can get more out once I have the boat level. Here's what surprised me: I was expecting to drain out frothy pink "milkshake" like I saw on the dipstick the other day, but the fluid I pulled was more of a dark milky red - sort of like a bloody mary. Not frothy like I saw the other day at all. I'm guessing that this is because the fluid has settled and cooled, but I'm going to show it to the tech tomorrow to see what he says. Here's a photo...

THE PLOT THICKENS... I rigged up a pressure test using a bike tube (see pic). No bubbles when submerged in water for a few minutes. Now what? Is my cheapo test reliable? Should I replace the part anyway? If this thing is not leaking, why is there water in the tranny? There hasn't been any water in the bilge that I can remember.

Well, I pulled the tranny cooler tonight. Anybody know a part number for this thing? The only thing stamped on it is "1165" and I can't find anything on the web or in the manual. My plan is to replace the cooler -- then drain, run and refill the fluid and few times and hope for the best. Any suggestions? How long should I run it for between draining/refilling? Should I actually drive around a bit, or just idle it at the dock? This sucks.