Transmission Rebuild Dirty Neutral-Should I Care?

After replacing the shaft and having FFM rebuild the 1.23 transmission for my 89 SN, I noticed a dirty neutral while adjusting the packing gland with the boat in the water and the motor idling, 1 turn per second. Interestingly, when I ran the boat in the driveway immediately after the rebuild, before the first lake test, the prop shaft did not move; then again, the cutlass bearing was new and had never been wet, there was no water coming through the packing gland, and I think the packing gland was too tight.

I have seen replies on other threads stating a dirty neutral is caused by clutch plates dragging. I think the warranty period for the rebuild is a year, but there are just a few hours on the rebuild since I just got it back in the boat. Is this a reason to send it back?

Same here after Eric rebuilt mine. It's nothing like it was before the rebuild, you can stop the shaft spinning with a light touch to the shaft coupler. Before the rebuild there was no way to stop it short of wedging a piece of wood at the prop. I would actually unhook the shaft from the coupler when winterizing or running on the trailer to keep the cutlass bearing from burning up.

Eric said it was normal for a little movement after a rebuild on the velvet drive.

I was told of a good shop near Chicago called " federal marine transmission inc" I was told they do good work. That is a good question to ask. I would think moving in neutral would be wrong on a new rebuild but I know nothing. I will be sure to ask. I plan on sending mine in soon.

Did you manage to get some more info about this dirty neutral?

My '91 PCM 40a 1:23 has just been rebuilt and also has a dirty neutral. You can stop the spinning shaft by hand, but it's enough to get the boat moving at about 2-3mph while in neutral. My mechanic says it's normal, but in my opinion it's very annoying to have a boat that tends to go forward all the time.

Welkom bij het leukste botenforum Sander

Welcome to CCFan Sander. If you ever want to talk boats, come on down to Belgium (Maaseik, near Weert). Beer is always cold in the fridge for CCFaners

Pete is one of our mechanical guru's here. And if your mechanic really rebuilt your trans, as Pete stated, it should not have a dirty neutral.
My old trans has a little dirty neutral and I got used to it. Works perfectly fine for the rest. And when in neutral, the prop makes one spin every two to three seconds, so not to bad yet...