Broken driveshaft?

[JasterCraft]

2015 X20 Surf Edition

I was surfing this morning, wife was driving, boat suddenly stops. I swim over and she says when she puts it in gear it just revs the engine and doesn’t move. I thought we lost the prop. We were in deep, wide open water, didn’t hit anything.

We get towed over to our dock and I get under the boat. I can feel that the prop and nut are tight on the shaft but they’ve slid down and are touching the rudder.

We put it on the trailer to confirm what happened and the weekend is officially done. Needless to say I’ll be taking it to the dealership this week.

Anyone ever see something like this?



Thanks to Mike (MastercraftKA) for giving me a tug to the boat ramp.




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[1redTA]

yes, on my 81 though. Looks like the shaft left the coupling or the coupling came loose also

[Mastercraftdave]

Broken driveshaft?

Yep your drive shaft is snapped.

I had the same thing happen to my X23 and it was right at the coupler.

My engine had come out of alignment due to settlement of the engine mounts. It’s imperative that you check the engine alignment yearly. With all that torque, a few degrees is a big deal.




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[JasterCraft]

Yep your drive shaft is snapped.

I had the same thing happen to my X23 and it was right at the coupler.

My engine had come out of alignment due to settlement of the engine mounts. It’s imperative that you check the engine alignment yearly. With all that torque, a few degrees is a big deal.

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Since I'm the 3rd owner, this won't be covered by warranty. Any idea on what type of $$ I'm looking at?

[LostDriver669]

Damn. Surprised that the prop didn’t get into the rudder at all.

BTW, beautiful boat. Pretty sure yours is the one Aric sent me some pics of last week.

[BudmanV24]

I think driveshafts are only a few hundred dollars (or at least for the mid 2000 era boats I think they were) if you have the patience to realign it yourself. At least it didn't nautique itself. Don't their driveshafts usually fall straight out of the bottom of the boat, prop and all, sinking to the bottom of the lake? Maybe I'm thinking about MBs.

[mastercraftka]

2015 X20 Surf Edition

I was surfing this morning, wife was driving, boat suddenly stops. I swim over and she says when she puts it in gear it just revs the engine and doesn’t move. I thought we lost the prop. We were in deep, wide open water, didn’t hit anything.

We get towed over to our dock and I get under the boat. I can feel that the prop and nut are tight on the shaft but they’ve slid down and are touching the rudder.

We put it on the trailer to confirm what happened and the weekend is officially done. Needless to say I’ll be taking it to the dealership this week.

Anyone ever see something like this?



Thanks to Mike (MastercraftKA) for giving me a tug to the boat ramp.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dam thats a pretty XT23!

[Mastercraftdave]

Since I'm the 3rd owner, this won't be covered by warranty. Any idea on what type of $$ I'm looking at?

In my situation, Ilmor actually denied the warranty claim because they said the Dealer didn’t have any record of verifying the engine alignment during service and I have my dealer service the boat every 50 hours while in warranty.

Luckily, my dealer is top notch and covered the parts and labor because the ball was dropped somewhere. They have a customer for life because of this situation.

But had it not been cover, if I removed correctly, parts and marble was around $1000. That included a shaft, coupled ring, engine alignment and labor.

Sorry your having to deal with this. Hopefully it gets fixed quick.

Can you see on the transmission where it snapped?


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[waterlogged882]

Since I'm the 3rd owner, this won't be covered by warranty. Any idea on what type of $$ I'm looking at?

Approximately $500 for the A.R.E. shaft and coupler. A fairly straight forward install and alignment. New cutlass bearings while you're there (or not).

[JimN]

If it broke at the coupler the same as in Mastercraftdave's photo, the alignment was off at the front. If it had been a mis-aligned strut, it wouldn't stress it the same way- it would cause a slight bend (minor mis-alignment) or it would break close to the strut (major mis-alignment).

[JasterCraft]

Dam thats a pretty XT23!

Yeah, that guy was a champ ;-)




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[JasterCraft]

Can you see on the transmission where it snapped?


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Once it was apparent what happened, I chose to open this rather than the engine cover.




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[Babyback]

Once it was apparent what happened, I chose to open this rather than the engine cover.




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Ha...Good choice!

[CantRepeat]

It's possible the nut on the prop shaft at the coupler has come off and the shaft has just come out of the coupler.

[clrussell]

It's possible the nut on the prop shaft at the coupler has come off and the shaft has just come out of the coupler.

Yes and no. Most couplers have a lock screw on the nut now. And it would have made a heck of a racket loosing the keyway and nut