Clutch problem

[Richincident]

My ancient Volvo MD2 was pulled out of the boat, cleaned up, and had some repairs to inspection covers, etc. AND it was painted John Deere green. Looks awesome!

Meanwhile I thought, since the boat was in a boatyard, I should have the cutlass bearing replace, new stuffing, etc.

When I picked the boat up it seemed VERY lacking in power. But it has been many months since I sailed, and I was heading upwind and uptide in an unfamiliar harbor. I took the boat home, all the while wondering why I had lost at least half of the former speed.

But I really respect the folks who did the work, and I am still a neophyte around motors. So I tried to work with it.

It is now clear that the boat, in forward, has lost power. I got so crazy that I tried just putting my foot on the bottom of the bronze lever last week, figuring perhaps it was some kind of clutch slippage. Suddenly the motor dug in and the boat ZOOMED up to 4.7 knots, its old speed. It appears from what I have learned so far on the web that they will have to pull the boat out and reset the shaft, as I do not think that the clutch can be adjusted in forward.

Anyone see this problem before? They will be calling on the boat today while she is at the mooring, but is it fixable there?

THANKS for your thoughts!

[Quetzalsailor]

Frankly, I cannot imagine a clutch that you cannot adjust! Someone must know how! If not, pull it apart yourself and see how it resembles other similar systems. For example, the clutch on an Atomic 4 has a cylindrical housing with longitudinal grooves that you use to rotate with a screwdriver to tighten the cone clutch for reverse.

Perhaps there's no clutch and you slide the planets to engage the gears, like an old Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub in a bicycle. In that case, the linkage is all there is to be adjusted.

Good luck!