Water Tranny Problem

[John Friese]

I'm having trouble with one of my water trannies and wonder if someone
else might have any experience with such a problem. What's wrong is
one of my water trannies is failing every couple of years and failing
exactly the same way. When I restored this car 5 years ago the
intermediate idler gear on the passenger side was in bad shape, as was
the "top hat" that it rides on. I replaced both those parts and the
needle bearings and the car ran fine until two years ago when the gear
popped off of the top hat and left me without one prop running. The
needle bearings that the gear ran on were torn up as was the inside
running surface of the gear and the top hat surace. I replaced all
the parts and it ran fine for another couple of years. Last weekend,
the same problem occured again the again the top hat is torn up as are
the needle bearings. This time, at least, the inside of the gear
isn't badly damaged and I'll replace the bearings and the top hat but
what is causing this damage. The drive gear is fine, the ball
bearings on the prop shaft seem fine, the outer prop shaft gear also
appears to be ok and the whole water tranny seems to run quite
smoothly until it fails. I'm ready to put it back together again but
I'm afraid it will fail again in a couple of years unless I come up
with whatever is causing the failure. Any ideas?

John Friese
67 White
67 Red

 

[rlgreen_55]

John,

I am unsure after reading your post if you replaced the three shafts
the bearings and gears ride on. They could be worn just little (you
may not be able to see it with the eye) thus allowing play and
wearing things out prematurely. You could possibly check tolerances?

I had the same problem a few years back with the broken "top hat" and
replaced all including the shafts and so far so good.

Ron Green
Camp Hill, PA.

--- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, "John Friese" <jfriese@...>
wrote:
>
> I'm having trouble with one of my water trannies and wonder if
someone
> else might have any experience with such a problem. What's wrong is
> one of my water trannies is failing every couple of years and
failing
> exactly the same way. When I restored this car 5 years ago the
> intermediate idler gear on the passenger side was in bad shape, as
was
> the "top hat" that it rides on. I replaced both those parts and the
> needle bearings and the car ran fine until two years ago when the
gear
> popped off of the top hat and left me without one prop running. The
> needle bearings that the gear ran on were torn up as was the inside
> running surface of the gear and the top hat surace. I replaced all
> the parts and it ran fine for another couple of years. Last
weekend,
> the same problem occured again the again the top hat is torn up as
are
> the needle bearings. This time, at least, the inside of the gear
> isn't badly damaged and I'll replace the bearings and the top hat
but
> what is causing this damage. The drive gear is fine, the ball
> bearings on the prop shaft seem fine, the outer prop shaft gear also
> appears to be ok and the whole water tranny seems to run quite
> smoothly until it fails. I'm ready to put it back together again
but
> I'm afraid it will fail again in a couple of years unless I come up
> with whatever is causing the failure. Any ideas?
>
> John Friese
> 67 White
> 67 Red
>