Transmission Failure

Have you checked your props? Sounds like (and hopefully) you picked something up.

What is gear oil pressure compared to starboard side when slippage occurs .
Does gear oil appear to be burnt or discolored . If oil appears to be dark chances are there was slippage and possible clutch damage. If gear oil pressure is low you may be able to adjust pump pressure and correct problem.
Good luck

Simple. Get a pump and a 5 gallon bucket. Suck it out and put it in through the dipstick hole. (You'll do your motors the same way.) Not hard.

Get in touch with Chesapeake46 and check this thread:
http://www.yachtforums.com/threads/capitol-transmissions.11768/#post-221356

Get a pump and a 5 gallon bucket. Pump it out and in through the dipstick hole. You'll do your mains the same way. Not hard.

I did mine about 3 years ago. Starboard Capitol Gear all but lost reverse but I still had forward propulsion all the way home from Bimini. I drilled a hole in the salon deck and installed an eye bolt temporarily. used a small chain hoist hanging from the eye bolt I installed above the gear to remove the gear after removing a bunch of parts and pieces that were in the way. (Alternator, raw water pump, gear oil filter etc. etc.) once the gear was slid back and free from the engine I made a ramp out of plywood to get it slid up between the engines. I set up an A-Frame in the salon and hoisted it out of the hole. Used good old fashioned elbow grease to get it off the boat and into the back of my truck. Transmission Marine in Ft. Lauderdale did an awesome job rebuilding it! The bill was about $4K. Did everything in reverse to reinstall and I haven't looked back...Except of course to check my spread and fight a fish! Let me know if you need any more clues.

Guess that could work, but I'm not thrilled with having transmissions open to contaminents more than necessary. You can pick up a pump/bucket combo at West Marine. Not sure how much fluid the tranny holds, but you can reverse the pump for filling. Keeps things neat.

Lift the back of the motor with an a-frame. put blocks under the bell housing then slide the gear back. You should enough room behind the prop to get the gear off. We had a long I-beam or stinger to reach in and lift the gear out of the bilge. It's so much easier and quicker to rebuild one on the bench rather than in the boat. If it's burnt the clutch up enough to get the gear oil black then it's pumped particles all through the gear that have to be flushed out.

There is a filter screen in the bottom of trans where suction hose to pump is. Put paint pan under trans remove hose drain oil remove screen that is part of the fitting that the hose is connected to. Also their should be a remote canister filter to replace. Start simple first before pulling trans. Good luck

A customer of mine had a Capitol gear rebuilt at a transmission shop somewhere in Chesapeake Va. last Summer. They had the parts on hand and turned it around in about a week. Google may turn up the source. If you can't find it and need a name, respond here and let me know. I can make a call and find out.

As dsharp said...I blocked the back of the motor up with wooden blocks between the bell housing and the hull. Just loosened front motor mount nuts and removed rear ones prior to picking and blocking. I was able to slide the shaft back far enough so the combination of the back of the motor being higher and the coupler being pushed back gave me enough clearance to slide the gear back and free it from the motor. I suggest removing entire trans and having it completely rebuilt. You will kick yourself if you save $1000.00 and have to pull the gear again a year from now because something else failed that certainly would have been caught by a qualified technician performing a complete rebuild. My symptoms were exactly the same as yours except I lost reverse which is consistent with what I have read on boatdiesel.com. Port forward will fail 1st and Stbd reverse will fail 1st on these Capitol gears. Same dark fluid etc. etc.. my clutch disks were junk when they pulled it apart and they found a couple other substantial issues which they addressed. The actual gears and bearings are pretty bullet proof but there are other failure points beside the clutch pack. Nice folks at Transmission Marine. Call them for advice on a repair facility in your area...Or palletize it and ship the gear to them. I work for a marine towing company in Ft. Lauderdale and have no affiliation with Transmission Marine...But I can't say enough good things about the work they did and their attention to detail.