GrandLake353

I have a little dilemma/dispute going on with my mechanic, which is also located at the marina where I keep my boat.

I have a 1998 Formula 353 fastech with stelling ext boxes, along with 500hp carb, and fresh bravo 1 XR's. The boat has a total of 240 hours on it. In April, I paid $1500 to my mechanic/marina to do a complete service on the drives and extension boxes, and they stated on the bill that all points where greased, including both sets of U-joints. In late July I was driving the boat, and I had just run the boat hard for about 2 minutes, and when I stopped, I smelled a burning smell. As soon as I was getting the boat on plane again, there was a hard jolt, loud noise, and apparently the drive shaft in the extension box appeared to have snapped.

The next week, my mechanic then pulled the boat out and said that the u-joints in the extension box and extension box drive shaft were broken, to go along with a few small parts in the bell housing were also broken. So my mechanic had pulled the engine and replaced parts, which I believe the parts totaled around $1,000. Unfortunately, I just got the total bill, and it was a little over $5k with labor. The issue that I have here, is that my insurance adjuster looked at the parts, and they issued a report that stated that this malfunction was a result of poor lubrication. However, I don't feel responsible, considering that I paid $1,500 in April to have this area lubricated? I had probably only used the boat 30 hours since the service. Please let me know your thoughts here. Do you think I have grounds for an argument here? I don't have a problem paying for the new parts, but I just think that my mechanic should work me some kind of deal on labor.

Thanks for any insight that you all might have!

halfbuzzed

thats a bit of a tough call. But i would have to say the insurance guy is going by some sheet that says reasons for this problem occuring. What was the real reason for the failure? did your mechanic give you a reason for the shaft breaking?

FIXX

my opinion!!! all boat owners should have some kind of mechanical experience,period....Buy a book on your engine set up,drive set up and extension box set up,do some reading on where all the Greece points are and if you pay someone for the services rendered and you don't see that the services were done then you have ground to stand on..theirs allot of marinas the take care of allot of boats and if the marina you deal with only has one mechanic then something may have been over looked or missed and you got charged for it..

most of the time theirs a mechanic on duty and a service guy that hands you the bill,their was probably miscommunication between the two and you got charged for something that wasn't done,in your case it was the u joints,now me being a tech and if my boat was under warranty and it had to go to a merc dealer for some service work i always check if the work was done..if he greased the ujoints like he said he did their would be some kind of evidence at the drives,always check if they were removed,smug of Greece,finger prints,clean Greece zurts,greasy Greece zurts,new Greece at the pivot pins between the drive housing and the gimbal ring.theirs always a sign if the work was completed..

legg to stand on?that would be hard call,drill the guy and refuse to pay for the repairs..if the ujoints show a sign of rust then their would be a leg to stand on,also some ujoints dont come with greece zurts ,look at your old ujoints and see if they have them,if not then ask how did you greece them if theirs no greece zurts?

just my o2

getrdunn

i would want to inspect the parts myself as well as have another marine mechanic inspect them also. sure sounds like he skipped a few zert fittings.... on the flip side some parts just fail though. i might even take the time to carefully bag up the parts and send them back to merc and see what they say. is there any kind of a known problem with the parts? year, make, serial number. just some thoughts. that really sucks especially during these difficult times. i feel for you.
good luck.
john

jeff32

I'm surprised you are talking about an insurance ajuster???

did not see the job but 1000$ in parts could be ok but 4k in labor, that's alot of hours only to pull 1 engine and fix a shaft... that's 40 hours at 100$ !!!

anyway, still don't see why you have an insurance agent in there, I thought a mecanical problem was not covered by insurance... of course on his side he's gonna try to say it is someone's fault so he does not pay...

and yes I believe even if maintenance was done it might sometimes break for no reason, but maybe he did not grease these parts... very hard to tell...

good luck and let us know how it goes!

Young Performance

I really don't see where you have any recourse. However, I agree with Jeff in that 4K for labor to R and R one engine is crazy. I get 5 hours each way at 65/hr. That is only $650. Throw in an hour to R and R the drive and a few to fix the problem and I would get about 1K in labor. And I would still have people bit@h at that price. I think you may want to look elsewhere for a mechanic.
Eddie

Griff

I agree with all of whats been stated. A mechanical failure is not covered by insurance.

I believe Stellings says that 25hr service is recommended on greasing the boxes. Thats about when I do mine.

First, $1500 for the first service alone is nuts. Thats a $500-700 job max. 4-6 hrs labor plus lube.

The parts in the Stellings box are not cheap. You could actually have a lot more in parts.

GrandLake353

I have already had several spirited talks with the manager of the marina regarding this bill, and I am currently waiting to hear back from him, in regards to any kind of reduction in the bill, but that doesn't sound very promising. It is hard to say as to whether the U-Joints where greased when I paid for them to do so in April, and the only grounds that I have that says that they weren't properly greased, is a report put together by by insurance company. Whenever the work was originally completed, I did not check their work, as I am not a mechanic and I feel that if I am going to pay a premium for the work to be done, that it should not be my job to go back and check to make sure that it was all completed. My family has been using this mechanic for many years, and between just my dad and I, we have spent over $25k in service in the past 2 years, (mainly because dad went through 2 transmissions in his sundancer). I have stated to the manager of the marina that I am willing to pay and settle, but I just don't feel that the labor cost is at all fair, especially considering that I have a report by an insurance company that states that the reason for this malfunction was because of a lack of lubrication, a job that I paid a premium ($1,500) for them to do back in April. I have been using these guys for a long time, I keep my boat at their marina, and I hope to continue using them, but I have made my point very well clear to this marina, that the bill was not fair. They billed me for 33 hours of labor, and that just seems way out of line, not to mention they charged me $210 to put the boat on the trailer and pull it out of the water. It is my hope that we can come up with some kind of settlement, as I am very sure that this marina does not want the bad publicity.

mike tkach

the u joints on the engine side are very hard to get at for greasing if the engine is mounted as standard on bravo drives.i had the same setup on one of my boats.i know for a fact that if you don,t grease them every 25 hrs,the joint WILL FAIL.i am telling you this from experiance.i broke one,when i took it apart the joint was blue from heat.check the broken parts for blueing,if they are blue,they might not have been greased.

racinfever

If they lasted 240 hours its becaused they were being lubed. Stelling drive lines just dont last. There are lots of threads on here about that.