I have a 2002 Sea Ray 480MY. I...

[Howards_480]

I have a 2002 Sea Ray 480MY. I have had some issues with the transmission not engaging. There are times it works fine then when you least expect it one side or the other will quit engaging. This past weekend it started back working after shutting down for 15 minutes or so. I was wondering if anyone understood how this works on my boat and any potential causes?

[wingless]

Welcome to the forum.

What transmission is in the yacht?

Have the basic steps been implemented? Is the fluid level correct, the shift linkage properly adjusted and the fluid not contaminated w/ raw water from a failed cooler?

Have the fluids and filter been periodically changed?

Chances are this is a ZF transmission, so the high pressure pump is used to compress the appropriate clutch disc plates, depending upon the shift selector position.

On mine, that pump may be disassembled for inspection / cleaning.

Both sides are problematic?

[Howards_480]

Thanks Wingless I will copy this information to my boat guy. Im in my first year with a boat over 30' long so I am learning on the job.

[Jeffs_420]

I had some issues with mine that turned out to be low batteries and bad alternator that was not powering the cellanoids. The gauges would also would go out. New batteries and new alternator took care of the issue.

[HUMPH]

I had the same thing happen once where neither side worked. I discovered that my charger had failed and the batteries were low. With electronic shifters, there wasn’t enough juice to shift while my pre-heats were on. The undersized 30 amp alternators couldn’t produce enough power to operate he 90 amp pre-heats with low batteries.

[Peteatthebeach]

There maybe an electrical connection at the transmission that is loose. I had to wire tie the connectors together that fixed the problem

[Pigpen]

I disconnected the intake heaters, improvement in many areas. No more voltage fluctuations (bad for the electronics), no more frying an alternator and more. The Cummins guy mentioned they are useful operating in below freezing temps, not so much above.

[Howards_480]

I have a twin disc transmission. Not sure but was playing around with the engine sync switch and starboard transmission started back working. This is so frustrating!

[A_Yacht_More_Fu]

I had a similar issue. After reading manuals and everything else. We found that using the sync on the dash and on the shifter causes a problem. We leave the sync switch off on the dash and only use the shifter sync and no
problem.

[RMS]

Hey folks. I have a 510da so not sure they are exactly the same. When this happened we removed the electronic connection and sprayed it with non corrosion company and reconnected. So far so good

[Howards_480]

Thanks RMS my mechanic thinks he may have tracked the problem down to the buttons that connect to the solenoids were corroded he remove the buttons and soldered the wire directly to the solenoid and believes it is fixed. Will be lake testing soon! Fingers crossed!

[Peteatthebeach]

The electrical connections at the transmission had come loose. Tightening the center screw and using a couple spot ties to keep them together solved the problem. Bad or very weak batteries will cause the same problem