Transmission Problems

[makanikai1]

I have recently have my second transmission installed. The last one was two years ago. Our mechanic said he can no longer get the factory trany so he installed a more heavy duty one, wish I could remember the size he installed, think it was a 10 something. It seems to be working good. He thought that the factory and the last one he installed was a little light for the motor RPM's and prop. I currently have a perkins 30 HP with a two blade prop. One of he problems with the transmission going out was shifting in higher than normal RPM's, around 1000. We have been very careful about this in the past and will in the future.
I was wondering if anyone change further explain this problem to me or has had this happen to their Catalina?

 

[Stu Jackson]

If it's a Hurth transmission, you most likely received the newer beefier ZFW (or ZWF) 10 instead of the model 5. For some unknown reason, some particular boats have had troubles with the Hurth ZWF5 units for years and years. The Catalina 36s have extensive discussions and repairs (www.catalina36.org, forums), while our C34s have reported almost no issues. Some Ericsons had issues, others none. Go figure...

As always, good maintenance practices for replacing the transmission fluid are always required.

 

[Calif. Ted]

As Stu said the Hurth HBW50 has an erratic and checkered history, I had one on a '94 270 that is still running fine (20 years & on it's 4th owner). A friend had one on an '06 30 that failed at less than 200 hrs, replacement cost with the ZF10 (or whatever) by mechanic was $1700 I believe. Lots of theories re: horsepower, shifting rpm etc. but the one I like best is "shimming". The transmissions are sensitive to being properly "shimmed" during assembly. Some days the guy that was really good at it called in sick.