Are You Harming Your Gearbox when Changing Gear?
Clutch Pet Gearboxes
Outboard motors and most stern push gearboxes (like Mercruiser’s Alpha drives) use a Pet dog Clutch established up for picking out and shifting equipment.
If you select gear slowly and very carefully with these gearboxes you will basically be damaging the equipment box.
Do you hear a grinding or chattering noise when picking both forward or reverse gear?
If you do, a thing demands to alter or one particular working day your reduce device will not have any drive and it will regularly jump out of equipment.
To start with I will describe how the lower device/gearbox operates.
They have an enter shaft that is driven from the motor or ‘power head’. (This enter shaft is called the driveshaft. The driveshaft has a equipment connected to the bottom of it identified as the Pinion gear. The pinion gear is always in constant mesh with the forward and reverse gears. When at any time the motor is operating, the pinion equipment is rotating the forward and reverse gears. Amongst the ahead and reverse gear there is the system that selects gear. This is named the Clutch Canine.
The Clutch Pet dog sits on the propeller shaft that protrudes out the back again of the gearbox and drives the propeller. The Clutch Doggy has an inner spline that is in consistent mesh with the propeller shaft.
Photograph the Clutch Puppy getting a front and a back again. At each stop it has large, square tooth. When you decide on gear on the motor you shift the Clutch Puppy forwards and backwards along the propeller shaft.
When the Clutch Pet is moved to choose equipment it engages with the exact same sized square tooth on the certain equipment that is becoming engaged.
Bear in mind that both equally of the output gears (ahead and reverse) are rotating as they are in constant mesh with the pinion equipment (input equipment).
If you select equipment bit by bit, the Clutch Dog will gradually move into mesh with the equipment. This gradual motion will cause the tooth of the equipment to ‘skip’ above the teeth on the Clutch Dog. This continual skipping wears away the wonderful sharp edges of the enamel and will sooner or later result in the motor to bounce out of equipment.
How to Choose Gear
· The way to stay clear of accomplishing damage to your gearbox is to positively pick out gear. This suggests to virtually bang the engine into equipment so you hear one particular clear engagement of the gearbox, not chatter.
· You need to also pause in neutral when shifting from forwards to reverse or vice versa. This permits the propeller time to stop spinning.
· Do not change into reverse when you are relocating forwards rapidly. It produces a big sum of unnecessary force on the gearbox (and motor). Sluggish the boat down of the aircraft, come back to an idle and pause in neutral to permit the boat sluggish correct down. Reverse is purely a reverse, not a split…
Engine Idle Pace Much too Superior
· An additional bring about for injury staying carried out to the Clutch Puppy is your idle pace may possibly be way too high. If you motor is idling higher than all-around 900rpm in neutral you will be undertaking problems every single time you are deciding upon gear.
So…
· Make absolutely sure your idle velocity is set to what the Producer endorses!
· Positively pick out equipment
· Pause in neutral in between equipment changes.
· Let the boat gradual down just before transforming into reverse
· Have the equipment oil modified every single 100 hrs or every year, which ever will come first.