Thank's to all for the replies. As to the flex plate you have confirmed for me to follow what is my first reaction. Replace it. Even it it looks OK, the cost isn't worth the risk and Cost of having to it later. And if replaced, I can be fairly certain I will never have to do it (port side ) during the time I own the boat. I suspect it is original to the boat. If a new one lasts half as long, I'm good to go.
I had a Velvet Drive fail fairly soon after the warranty run out on a new engine/tranny I put in my old Trojan cruiser. I was clueless about the tranny but I pulled it out of the boat myself. 351 c.i. Ford V8's are infinitely lighter than the 354 Perkins. The tranny was smaller too, and didn't have reduction gears. Younger, stronger, and poorer, made it an easy decision to pull it myself. I hauled it to Chicago to the shop, Midstates, reccomended by the engine marinizer Perkins Great Lakes, Now, Power Great lakes. The Transmission shop does commercial, industrial, construction and marine transmissions. A walk thru their shop left me no doubt they knew their stuff. My Dad went along on the road trip into the city on a Saturday morning. Twenty minutes after I brought my transmission in they invited to the shop to watch them disassemble it. in a matter of minutes it was in pieces, they looked it over, found it had spun a bronze bushing. The spun bushing scored the bore of the housing, this allowed oil to flow past and energize the reverse clutches. That was why I couldn't get it out of reverse. They said they would replace the bushing, knurl the bore and 'glue the bushing back in and I would never have trouble with it again. They couldn't fix it that Saturday but would have it ready on Tuesday afternoon. The cost: a few hundred dollars. It worked well for the next 15 years I used it. On our way back from the shop to the service desk, my Dad pointed out a Allison automatic like the one he had rebuilt and retrofitted to his GMC 4106 motorhome bus conversion. The guy said Yea that's a Allison V730 we rebuild many of them. They are a unique version of a common Allison Trans, with a diagonal drive shaft on a GMC Pusher Bus chassis. My Dad had his rebuilt by the authorized DDA Distributer in Iowa, but asked them a few questions about the transmission. On the way home he told me they know what they are talkng about. I have good confidence in the transmission shop. I have also heard good things about a shop named Federal Marine Transmission, also in the Chicago area.
I live in Iowa, a few miles from where I-80 crosses the Mississippi. I keep my boat about 50 miles north. Chicago is only about 3 hours away, so the trip is no big deal. There are really very few inboard boats that are not I/O's
anywhere near. I doubt a marine transmission shop could keep the heat and lights on during the 6 months of winter with such a small market. Chicago is a bigger market.
After watching my old transmission get taken apart, I would be tempted to do it myself. But again at the end of the day I'm afraid that I would risk having to do it over, as a result of not knowing what I don't know. The cost of that would erase my savings and then some, and I wouldn't have it fixed before the cold hits, and the boat hits the hard.
